It seems as if we are seeing the first cracks starting to appear on the motoring safety front as Government and organisational cuts start to take hold. This has significant bearing on fleet operators.

On Tuesday of this week, it was reported that incidents of speeding had increased by 88% in Oxfordshire following the County Council’s decision to switch off all speed cameras to save money.

According to the Thames Valley Safer Road Partnership, which monitored drivers on two roads over a period of five days, 62 drivers were clocked speeding on the Watlington Road, Cowley, up 88% while on the A44 in Woodstock, 110 drivers exceeded the 30 mph speed limit, 18% more than the average for 2010.

The Council will save £600,000 per annum following the switch-off at the end of July. As we know, fines generated by speed cameras disappear into central Government’s coffers, never to be seen again, rather than directly fed back into road safety programmes or for local council transport budgets. Brake, the road safety charity, is deeply concerned but the Council states it’s too early to draw conclusions.

Inevitably, speeding will creep up where speed cameras are switched off, with consequent repercussions for road safety.

Meanwhile, the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSPA) has declared concern over the number of vans failing safety checks. Last year, it carried out 21,000 roadside safety checks with more than half of vans found to have mechanical defects of one sort or another, the most common problem being brake related.

The van sector is a good barometer of the state of health of the economy and short-cuts in maintenance are a sure sign that things are beginning to really bite.

Apparently, according to VOSPA, 45 per cent of vans fail their MOT indicating poor maintenance during their working life. It also seems that according to unpublished data, VOSPA has found a disturbing upward trend of MOT failures among vans.

Given that the VOSPA roadside check failure rates for HGVs and PSVs are much lower at 34 and 24 per cent respectively, vans are posing the greatest threat to road safety on our roads.

VOSPA is keen for van operators to adopt the good practice of HGV operators as outlined in the ‘O’ licence on preventative maintenance by, among other things, making van drivers conduct a daily check of the roadworthiness of their vehicle before starting deliveries and keeping proper records of those checks.

VOSPA has also noted a deteriorating trend in MOT failures for cars and light vans, rising from 33 per cent in 2006/07 to 36 per cent in 2008/09. These principally relate to brakes, lights, suspension and tyres.

Inevitably, as the cost saving squeeze gets tighter, the temptation to cut corners on proper vehicle maintenance will increase. The recession has certainly seen operators and drivers ignore what is basic safety and the trend will only get worse especially as vehicle service intervals lengthen and owners ignore the recommended service intervals.

Given the backdrop of duty of care, organisations need to take a sharp look at current practices as penny-pinching on servicing could prove a false economy. And now that the European Commission has ruled servicing by authorised dealers is not a pre-requisite to vehicle warranty maintenance, fleets can save money by going to non-franchised servicing outlets. All in all, there is no excuse for proper maintenance.

Life is not a dress rehearsal. It’s the real thing and you have to make the most of the opportunities presented to you and those that you create for yourself. And since the majority of our lives is spent working, it is only natural that we should seek to do something that we believe in and are passionate about. Whether you are a mid-wife or a fleet manager you should feel passionate about what you do. Otherwise, you should do something else. Life’s too short.

I am incredibly passionate about my job and the industry I work in. That’s why I have never contemplated driving off into the sunset and seeking a quieter life. I love cars, the automotive industry and the people that work in it. There is something about people working in the motor industry that differentiates them from employees in other sectors. I don’t know what it is but we talk the same talk and walk the same walk. Well, more or less. It’s probably our enthusiasm for all things mechanical, which have at least two wheels but preferably four. And that collective enthusiasm I could feel last week at the BMW Mini Plant at Cowley where the Institute of Car Fleet Management (ICFM) held its annual members’ national conference and workshop.

It was the 17th such event and the last two have moved away from the traditional conference format. Last year, due to the prevailing economic recession, we decided to hold a free training workshop instead to help members in their drive out of the tough business climate. This year, the ICFM Council decided to opt for a blend of both. A traditional conference programme interspersed with some practical breakout training workshops.

If the initial feedback is anything to go by, I believe it worked well and what was especially evident throughout the programme was our attendees’ passion for our industry. And it was also a great occasion at which to recognise the achievements of others – the 20 recipients of the BVRLA Professional Fleet Consultants Award, the 12 recipients of the Introductory Certificate in Car Fleet Management, the 16 recipients of the Certificate in Car Fleet Management and the seven recipients of the Diploma in Car Fleet Management not to mention the ten inducted as Fellows of the ICFM.

Besides excellent outputs from our two workshop sessions, we benefited from three different stimulating talks from Sara Sillars OBE, executive chair of the Institute of the Motor Industry, Adrian Walsh, secretary and director at RoadSafe, and Kevin Gaskell, CEO of Drive Development.

Adrian gave us a unique insight into the work of RoadSafe and how the fleet industry can contribute to saving lives, most notably by specifying ESC as standard equipment while Kevin rounded off the day with a highly motivational talk on driving success through an organisation of any size, based on his experiences of turning around the fortunes of Porsche GB and his walks to the North and South Poles.

Earlier, Sara Sillars had kick-started the day by giving attendees an insight into the future UK Vocational Qualifications Reform Programme (UK VQRP). The programme, somewhat of a mouthful, will aim to allow employees to acquire new skills’ qualifications ‘bit by bit’ and harmonise the different qualifications available.

More importantly, the programme will underpin Government’s declared ambition of ensuring that one in every two adults, as a minimum, raises their game by studying and passing a higher-level qualification to the one they held at the outset of their working life. It’s believed that is the only way of ensuring that our nation remains competitive in a global market.

In that regard, the ICFM qualifications are already in place, and are externally moderated and endorsed by the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM), part of the City & Guilds Group. We are already ahead of the game in ensuring our sector is the most professional it can be.

The UK fleet industry is widely regarded as the most sophisticated in the world. There is no place for the ‘interested amateur.’ Those looking after fleet, whether in a full-time role or as part of a financial or HR remit, are responsible for controlling one of the most expensive organisational costs alongside estates, people and IT. They are also responsible for one of the most emotive elements of a total reward package. Unsurprisingly, therefore, those in charge should be professionals holding recognised qualifications. This is where the ICFM comes into play. It’s no secret that my declared ambition is to see every fleet-related job advertisement carry words along the lines of ‘relevant ICFM qualification a pre-requisite/preferred’.

Professionalism and passion go hand in hand. Passion was evident in our audience, among all our guest speakers and among our Council, who gave freely of their time to make the event the success that it was. It’s what makes our industry lead the world. And it’s why I’m a member of and chairman of the ICFM. I’m passionate about our profession.

Already comes news that £17.2 million will be cut from the road safety budget. This follows latest government statistics showing the number of deaths on Britain’s roads fell by 12% last year to a record low of 2222 in 2009, while child deaths fell from 124 to 81. Total casualties, including slight injuries, were 4% down. It is troubling to think that complacency may be creeping in on road safety at a time when the trend for fatalities is consistently downward.

Naturally, various organisations are up in arms over the news, led by road safety charity, Brake. However, as with other areas of government spending, Whitehall is looking at avoiding the prevalent duplication of activities by various departments and organisations. Such an approach would make natural sense but not at the expense of road safety.

The potential consequences of the deep cut in road safety budgets should cause considerable concern among fleet managers. As we all know, the benefits of proper risk management, including road safety, far outweigh the costs.

It’s not as if that, while road deaths are on the decline, our roads are the safest. Indeed, the UK is ranked only the fourth safest in Europe for its road network. The European Road Assessment Programme (EuroRAP), which rates the safety risk of roads in Europe, considers just 53% of the UK’s roads to be ‘low risk’.

The EuroRAP score assesses roads on how well their design protects users from death or disabling injury in the event of an accident with the safest awarded four stars.

In the UK, half of the motorways under the Highways Agency’s control achieved a four-star rating while 78% of dual carriageways were given a three-star rating. EuroRAP considers the protection offered if a vehicle runs off the road, the risk of a head-on collision and the safety of junctions.

Half of motorways do not protect users if they run off the road while for dual carriageways the figure is a high 90%. Ninety-seven per cent however do offer protection against head-on collisions. Single carriageways lacked the most safety features, 62% rated two stars.

According to EuroRAP our road safety network is just not consistent enough. For example, Scottish roads are twice as risky as roads in England and Wales and the safest country, Sweden, has managed to design single carriageways with safety records even higher than motorways, something believed not to be achievable.

Meanwhile, the Road Safety Foundation suggests that a lick of paint can work wonders. Fatal and serious collisions can be reduced by over 70% by improving road markings and signage, applying high-friction anti-skid treatments at known accident junction hot spots and generally improving the signage and layout of road junctions.

When the cake gets smaller, it is has to be sliced better. Prudent wielding of the knife does not necessarily mean deep cuts have to have the severe repercussions that may be first anticipated. Government and local councils ignore road safety at their peril. If they do and this results in a reversal of the downward trend in road deaths all fleet managers will have to step up to the plate and provide even better driver training and guidance to their ‘at work’ drivers.

Deepwater Horizon are two words BP, its employees, shareholders and more importantly still, the people living along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico, wished they had never heard of. Deepwater is the polite term for what BP currently finds itself in. For the poor people, and the trouble is that most of them are poor, around the Gulf the deep oily mess they find themselves in is worse still. Fishermen find themselves fishing for oil, not fish. Tourism in the region has been devastated. The final environmental impact of the disaster has yet to be properly calculated. Now in its tenth week, the cost to BP so far amounts to $2bn and climbing. And on Barak Obama’s insistence, it has set aside $20bn to meet compensation claims.

Worst still is that ten weeks on oil is still spilling in the Gulf at a rate approaching 40,000 barrels worth a day. The company estimated it collected 23,900 barrels-worth last Sunday but the US administration estimates 60,000 is pumping into the waters each day. A relief well to finally stem the flow will not start operations until early August so the environmental disaster continues. The Exxon disaster pales into insignificance by comparison.

Even worse still for BP are other leaks. Those revolve around the company having allegedly bribed officials and cut safety corners. Like aircraft, oil rigs are designed with back-up systems. If one shear ram fails, as happened on Deepwater Horizon, another should kick in. However, in the BP case, the second one didn’t due to leaking hydraulic fluid, something that had been observed weeks before in one of the control pods and reported to the company. Normally, the rig would have been shut down to repair the fault but BP allegedly just shutdown the faulty unit and in so doing didn’t have a back-up system.

Nor should it be forgotten that 11 workers died on the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20, when an explosion triggered the current environmental disaster. Something that beleaguered chief executive, Tony Hayward significantly failed to do, writing on Facebook that he wanted his life back! Ouch, PR disaster number one!

Then came his appearance at the US Congressional Committee last week where his performance was shambolic to say the least. Caught in the lion’s den, under the full glare of the media and facing naturally hostile questioning, Hayward was accused of stonewalling the Committee. In seven hours of questioning he admitted not knowing the answer over 60 times and showed little genuine remorse. PR disaster number two.

However, Hayward still had one more PR disaster trump card. The power of the social media came to the fore when somebody Twittered that Tony Hayward was enjoying life on the high seas in a corporate sailing event off the Isle of Wight. America was apoplectic with rage. PR disaster number three.

As a result of his performance, Hayward was relieved of his responsibilities as leader of the response team in the Gulf. The chairman of BP said that Hayward had damaged the reputation of the company. He declared that this has now turned into a reputation matter, financial and political.

So if any organisation has doubts about the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR), or indeed the power of PR, they need look no further than the fine mess that BP is in. Five letters never to ignore – CSR and PR. Shy away from them at your peril.

Eyjafjallajokull is a word that became quite familiar a few weeks back even though probably people got a little tongue-tied pronouncing it. However, with planes flying freely once again, Eyjafjallajokull has fallen off the radar! It doesn’t even figure at the top of the Met Office severe weather warnings any more.

So besides the obvious impact the erupting volcano had on fliers, shoppers and certain business sectors, as discussed in my blog of April 23, what other impact has it had or could have going forward?

I tripped across an article the other day that claimed that in just four days Eyjafjallajokull had negated all the carbon emission savings worldwide over the past five years! Apparently, when the Mount Pinatubo volcano in the Philippines erupted in 1991, it erupted more greenhouse gases than had been created in the previous 40 million years.

Indeed, out of control bush fires that happen annually in various parts of the world from California to Australia via Greece can negate carbon emission reductions by two to three years.

All that smoke and ash is bound to have its effect whether the above is entirely accurate or not. Eyjafjallajokull has not yet necessarily gone back to sleep and its sister volcano – Katla – is predicted to erupt in the coming months.

Every time Eyjafjallajokull has erupted, Katla has never remained dormant. It’s ten times bigger than Eyjafjallajokull and has always erupted within six months of its unpronounceable neighbour. It also has a much bigger ice cap, and the combination of melting cold water and lava results in ash shooting up to high altitude. Katla last erupted in 1918 so don’t bet on it not following its two-thousand-year track record. Unfortunately Katla is much easier to pronounce too. Let’s just hope it’s not on everyone’s lips!

Meanwhile, we cannot afford to relax our efforts to reduce carbon emissions, volcanoes or no volcanoes. Natural disasters and carbon emissions we can do nothing about but man-made disasters, such as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and man-made carbon emissions we can certainly limit. At a time when our oil reserves are diminishing at an unprecedented rate, it makes the BP fiasco a double-whammy. Short-cuts and bribery will end up by costing the oil giant dear and the loss of 30 million barrels of liquid gold per day are not a drop in the ocean. Quite literally! Just ask the poor folks of the four most affected states, and the majority of those are poor.

Protecting our environment and our natural resources must be a top priority. BP is easier to say than Katla and far easier to recall and utter than Eyjafjallajokull. In all cases however, they are having a dramatic effect on mankind.