Colin Paterson, Head of Marketing at DriveTech, on the company’s latest developments and its main focus for the Great British Fleet Event in January 2019.
What are you working on?
Amongst other things, we’re looking forward to the new year and an expected buoyant demand for fleet risk management and driver training services from within the fleet sector – both in the UK and internationally through DriveTech International.
We’re also working on the next in our popular series of DriveTech whitepapers which we hope to have ready for the Great British Fleet Event and understanding how the overarching target and ambitious commitments such as Towards Zero (radical reductions in traffic fatalities/road deaths) might impact the business/commercial fleet sector, as there is always more to do to not only reduce operational and collision costs, but also to save lives.
We were delighted to be an active participant in both Project EDWARD (European Day Without A Road Death) and the more recent Road Safety Week and I hope helped to create greater awareness of the needs for safer and more considerate driving and a more open-minded attitude to share the roads safely with more vulnerable road users.
What will you be exhibiting at the Great British Fleet Event?
DriveTech will be offering information on the full driver risk management and driver training programmes we offer, and will highlight particularly our electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (EV/PHEV) driver training courses launched during 2018 – increasingly popular as more and more fleets make EV an increasingly prevalent component of their fleet vehicle choice.
What do you see as the big challenges facing the industry?
The current flat-lining of road deaths in the UK as illustrated by the DfT (Department for Transport) 2017 road casualty statistics published at the end of September is a concern and should be for everyone using the roads, for business or pleasure. The big challenge (avoiding the main one over uncertainty and Brexit), as so often is to overcome the apathy and temptation to doing nothing or very little, and replace that with an informed and measured view that commits to driver training as part of a committed risk management strategy – to improve fleet safety, reduce costs over time, and minimise road deaths.