Fleet operators say that recovering losses from incidents involving foreign vehicles is becoming a major concern.

With the number of road accidents involving foreign vehicles, particularly HGVs, on the rise, fleet managers are faced with a frustratingly difficult task to recover the cost of such incidents.

One example highlighted by Fleet News is John Stack - Michelin group fleet transport manager - who said that despite vehicles in his 400-strong fleet being involved in at least two crashes a year with foreign vehicles, he had been unable to recover any money.

Pointing to the complexity of the process and the lack of success, Mr Stack said he no longer attempted to recover losses and added: “If we are typical and other fleets are having the same experience then this is a real problem.”

The issue is leading to fleets turning to professional recovery agents for help. Denny Payton, corporate uninsured loss recovery partner at Harvey Ingram solicitors, said: “We are seeing a significant increase in the number of companies seeking professional help.”

Thousands of company car drivers will carry on using hand-held mobile phones at the wheel despite the possibility of being jailed if tough new prosecution rules come into force, suggests a survey by multi-marque fleet funding company Alphabet.

The Crown Prosecution Service is expected to confirm shortly that drivers whose phone use causes danger will be charged automatically with dangerous driving. The offence carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail.

Alphabet questioned 500 company car drivers to see whether this would change their behaviour. The results suggest that three out of 10 company drivers use their phones while driving, with a quarter of this group intending to carry on much as before despite the threat of tougher sanctions.

Although 43% of the phone users said they would use a suitable hands-free accessory or fitting in future, 18% said they would continue to use a hand-held phone ‘more carefully’ while 8% would not change their behaviour at all. The latter two groups represent 7% of the total survey; equivalent to 350,000 out of the estimated five million employees in the UK who drive company or private vehicles on business.

However, the CPS proposal would persuade the remaining 31% of existing phone users to switch their mobiles off completely while driving.

Nearly all the professional drivers who chose not to use their mobiles at the wheel said that this was a personal decision. Just 6% of the law-abiding respondents in the survey said they switched off because of company policy.

Alphabet’s head, Mark Sinclair, said: “Companies should be very concerned by these findings. Once again, they show that safety policies alone have very little influence on actual driver behaviour.”

The current penalty for using a hands-free mobile phone when driving is a £60 fine and three penalty points. Drivers may be charged with careless driving or more serious offences if they appear not to be in proper control of their vehicle while using the phone (this also applies to drivers using their phones hands-free).

The Government and police have launched their annual Christmas crackdown on drink-drivers and are urging anyone hitting the party scene to leave their car keys at home.

The festive season blitz on drink-drivers has been launched amid reports in the Daily Telegraph and Daily Express that the Government is considering cutting the UK drink-drive limit, while also giving police officers powers to stop motorists at random and breathalyse them, even if their driving has given no cause for concern.

More than 6,000 people were hurt in drink-drive related crashes at weekends last year, with more than a third of these injured between 10pm and 3am.

Road Safety Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said: “Drink-driving ruins lives. Last year 540 people died in this pointless, avoidable way – that’s lives shattered and the dreams of family and friends devastated.”

More than half a million drivers are stopped and breathalysed each year with more breath tests carried out in December than in any other month. The number of people killed annually in alcohol-related road accidents has fallen by two-thirds since 1979. In 2006 540 people were killed.

Meanwhile, reports suggest that a Department for Transport consultation to be launched in the New Year will propose reducing the legal blood-alcohol limit for driving by almost half.

The current limit could be cut from 80 milligramms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood to 50 milligramms, which would bring the UK into line with the majority of European Union countries. However, ministers have not ruled out a zero-tolerance approach to drink-driving.

More than a quarter (26%) of all road deaths in Britain involve someone driving for work, according to Department for Transport statistics uncovered by road safety charity Brake.

With 2006 crash data showing a rise in incidents involving at-work drivers, Brake is calling on the Government to take action to tackle work-related crashes.

In 2006, 858 people were killed and 6,622 were seriously injured in crashes involving at-work drivers - 16 deaths and 127 serious injuries every week.  The actual figure could be much higher, with indications that at-work casualties are being under-reported by police, according to the charity.

The figures show an increase of 9% in deaths and serious injuries in crashes involving at-work drivers from 2005 (when these statistics were first published), when there were 850 deaths and 6,012 serious injuries. This rise may be due to improvements in police reporting, but it is thought many at-work road casualties are still not properly categorised by police on crash report forms, says Brake. Previous research estimated that one in three road deaths involve an at-work driver.

Actions that Brake is demanding include:

• Resolving issues to ensure the ‘purpose of journey’ of vehicles involved in crashes is accurately recorded by police, including providing extra training where necessary, so the extent of the problem can be fully known.
• Stepping up investment in publicity campaigns targeting people who drive for work and their employers.
• Requiring companies to report on-road crashes to the Health and Safety Executive. Currently, employers are only required to report on-site incidents to the HSE.

Jools Townsend, head of education at Brake, said: ‘The Government must ensure a more stringent approach to collecting data on at-work crashes, so we can fully understand the extent of the problem. We’re urging businesses to wake up to the need to manage and reduce risks faced by employees driving for work - and the risks posed to others.

‘That means having a comprehensive safe driving policy, to ensure drivers are not under pressure to take risks like speeding or driving when tired, and educating drivers on the consequences of breaking rules behind the wheel.’

Many employees will either refuse to use their own cars for business, or else be seriously out of pocket if tax-free HM Revenue & Customs Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAPs) do not rise significantly to catch up with rocketing fuel prices.

During the past five years AMAP rates have remained the same at 40p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles each year, and 25p per mile thereafter.

In 2002 when AMAP mileage rates were first introduced, the pump price for petrol was in the region of 77.9p per litre. It now costs over £1 per litre - or 30% more today than in 2002, according to fleet consultants Emmerson Hill Associates which prepare car running costs for the RAC.

Assuming that of the 40p per mile around 13p might be directly connected to the fuel element, then any indexation should address this.  Making an adjustment solely for the fuel element of the 40p would account for an increase of more than 3p/mile, yet there has been no movement and there appears to be no HMRC mechanism or formula for adjustment, claims the consultancy.  

Bob Blackman, a management consultant from Emmerson Hill Associates, questioned how much longer HMRC expected business users or their employers to carry on using out of date mileage rates which were ‘totally disconnected’ with what cars cost to run as a result of the fuel price rises.

He said: “The real cost of getting about should be based on what it actually costs people to do so by a number of means of travel - such as public transport, train, air, taxi and car - and our research shows this average to be nearer 52p per mile than the 40p per mile ‘fag packet calculation’ used by HMRC.”