The recent driver shortage in the UK has seen prospective salaries for HGV drivers skyrocket to entice young and new people into the profession. With full training provided in many cases, it’s certainly an exciting proposition for job hunters. However, this increase in inexperienced drivers certainly presents an accident and insurance risk to fleets and fleet managers. While it is no fault of their own these young and new HGV drivers are statistically more likely to be involved in accidents, hence presenting a higher insurance cost to their employers.
This worry comes from the fast-tracked training programs the drivers are being put through to get them out on the roads sooner and yet less competent than the previous generation of drivers. While fleet managers are of course worried about inexperienced drivers in small scale incidents in tight pedestrian areas and depots, the bigger worry of course are more serious collisions involving pedestrians and other vehicles, which could result in large legal pay-outs, not to mention the damage to a brand and PR perspective for a company.
With more and more experienced drivers leaving the profession there are of course only a limited number of options for fleet managers to take, the first being to work their remaining drivers harder, which with overworking being one of the main reasons drivers are leaving the profession is unlikely to be a popular choice. The second choice is to employ a fleet of new drivers which along with the increased wage costs, cost of driver training and with the increased insurance costs presents a rather expensive option for companies.
Fleet Managers can of course mitigate these extra insurance costs by upgrading their fleet with a range of rear-view, side-view and front-view cameras along a selection of Dashboard cameras, DVRs and fleet monitoring software. While these of course won’t offset the insurance increase it can not only give the driver more visibility of their surroundings when manoeuvring, but it gives fleet managers the opportunity to live track and view their drivers on the go.
EchoMaster offer a full range of services that can reduce insurance costs, improve driver visibility and confidence and also provide reassurance to fleet managers. This can not only help the wave of young and new drivers coming into the industry but also relieve stress from the remaining more experienced drivers making their work life more comfortable and encouraging them to stay within the industry.
For more information on the EchoMaster Camera and Telematics products please get in touch with our team who will be happy to help you with your unique business needs.