Friday 21st September 2001

Big Brother is Welsh

Welsh Assembly suggests speed limiters for company cars

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[dsouthwick]

Maybe its because some company car drivers do up to 4 or 5 times more miles than the average driver, so if they are only 50% more likely to have an accident, surely they are doing rather well aren''t they???

[smeagol]

Government don't think like that. They think "cars go fast on dual carrageways, if a person gets hit by a fast car they die, lets put cameras on dual carrigeways to cut the number of deaths of predestrians". Common sense is not a requirement, so Governement policy will eventually be "company car drivers more likely to have accidents = ban company car drivers, make them drive private cars"

[ATG]

I'm sure some companies do it already, but how about the govt promoting advanced driving courses for company car drivers. Encourage insurance companies to give meaningful discounts if co.s that demonstrate that their drivers are genuinely safer than average.

[Nightmare]

sorry chaps - disagree...they arent doing well at all.... We have a rep force of around 800, and frankly a lot of them shouldnt have driving licences at all...they often leave Uni, having not driven since they passed their test before going, and get given a brand new car - then told to drive thousands of miles a week. I bet if they split the stats down by age of driver and length of 'being a rep', the lot who really have been driving for many years at this sort of distance hardly have any crashes, but the younger ones have lots. I mean its hardly a surprise...people just dont give a toss if it isnt theirs. ATG is right..companies should be FORCED (in my view) to train reps in advanced driving or else not allow them out in cars. N

[dsouthwick]

As with all drivers, it still comes down to age and experience, not necessarily being a company car driver.... Make no mistake - I'm with you guys. Better driver training should be a must for EVERYONE, including the people who only do a few miles a week to the shops and back on the school run.

[mel]

Regardless of the package they are on nobody under 25 is allowed to drive a company car at my place, the few that would qualify are given an allowance and told to use their own cars. This is not just an insurance thing but more a reaction to graduates bending numerous company cars as night said. It was done to try and make the "younger less responsible" element more responsible for their driving instead of just shrugging it off when they bent another one !!! and seems to be working. I don't currently offer advanced driving packages but may well be looking at that in the future. I would also be very interested if anyone knows a good method to make the barstards wash the things and clean out the sandwich packets !

[RichB]

quote:clip....I would also be very interested if anyone knows a good method to make the barstards wash the things and clean out the sandwich packets !

Only pay their expenses following a succesfull "clean-car" inspection!