Advertisement feature from Teletrac Navman

Compared to ten or twenty years ago, the job of managing a fleet is harder today than it’s ever been. The combination of more traffic, a decaying road network and the commercial pressure of fitting in one extra job per day makes driving for work a dangerous pastime.

So much so, that according to HSE, a quarter of all road traffic incidents may involve somebody who is driving as part of their work at the time.

With headline grabbing figures like that, it’s little wonder that the various bodies with a say in reducing this figure are actively introducing new legislation, rules and advice to help businesses manage their road risk.

But with a host of statutory laws as well as rules and guidance laid out by HSE, DVSA, HMRC and the DVLA, the bureaucracy involved in managing a fleet and ensuring it is legally compliant can be overwhelming for fleet managers.

Little wonder then that compliance is a major cause of confusion for fleet managers. Following a recent customer research survey at GPS Fleet Tracking specialists Teletrac Navman, it was discovered that there was a much wider than anticipated gap between perceived and actual levels of fleet compliance.

The research revealed that fleet managers believed they were performing well and meeting the required levels of compliance. In reality, thanks to the mass of documentation to wade through from so many different bodies, many were falling short of the mark.

Peter Millichap, Director of Marketing at Teletrac Navman UK explains: “When we spoke to our customers, it was very clear that there was confusion about what a fleet manager needs to do to be legally compliant.

“That prompted us to engage with fleet compliance specialists Fleetcheck to see whether it was possible to slice through the complexity and find a way to make that available to fleet managers.”

Fleetcheck’s Steve Hutton agrees that compliance is a burden and only likely to get worse.

“The problem is the breadth of things that need to be understood. Today’s fleet manager has to be a specialist in every area of vehicle, driver and risk management to be sure they are compliant.”

In an effort to provide some clarity to a clouded situation, Teletrac Navman have created a Fleet Compliance Checklist to make it simple to identify if something isn’t right.

Says Peter: “We know that staying on top of the legislation is tough, so we wanted to provide a resource that helped fleet managers quickly get a status report on their own situation. Simply download and complete the checklist to get an idea of where you’re doing well or if you’re struggling. It’s a simple as that.”

Download the checklist at teletracnavman.co.uk/compliance-checklist-2016

“The potential consequences of being non-compliant are incredibly serious, so I’d urge anyone who looks after a fleet of vehicles to download the checklist and see how they measure up.”