How technology can help to reduce the risk of on-road incidents

The UK’s roads are getting more dangerous according to new research, which suggests there were more road deaths last year than a decade ago.

According to a new report published by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), road deaths rose from 1,905 in 2010 to 1,926 last year, but that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to road casualties.

In total, around 150,000 people are injured each year in road incidents, with more than 25,000 of them seriously hurt, most of them in motor vehicles.

Experts are concerned that as employees return to work after months of lockdown, it could lead to a further spike in incidents.

Antonio Avenoso, Executive Director of the ETSC, said:

“If we just revert to business-as-usual after this crisis, the results could be even worse than before. There are danger signs already in the large numbers of speeding offences being reported as lockdowns are lifted, which only adds to the work of overstretched police and emergency services.”

For fleet managers, one of the key challenges is ensuring vehicles are driven safely when they are out on the road.

As part of our commitment to providing vehicles with Safety as Standard, Reflex Vehicle Hire provides its commercial vehicles with technology that is vital to keeping road users safe.

Firstly, our speed limiters restrict commercial vehicles to 70mph. Although this doesn’t prevent speeding in urban areas, our second piece of technology does – telematics.

A report from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said telematics technology can significantly reduce crash rates and levels of risky driving behaviours, in addition to helping cut fuel and accident costs.

It has the potential to help employers to analyse the real driving behaviour and standards of staff who drive for work and help them to provide tailored, personalised feedback, while incentivising lower risk driving to “significantly reduce a company’s costs.”

Reflex Vehicle Hire has invested in this technology so that customers have access to the latest safety systems in every area of transport, not just their owned fleet.

Telematics data is also valuable for protecting drivers in the event of an incident where another party is at-fault, as it can be an independent and trusted witness to what happened.

Our third technology investment is dashcams, which offer benefits for both the driver and the company.

In the event of an incident, our technology captures the period before and after the event to provide vital evidence and to support future education, including defensive driving techniques.

All this technology is available through our award-winning Driive with Reflex modular risk management system, along with other valuable services, such as third-party data monitoring.

Our trusted independent experts can monitor live data so that when an event occurs, they are on-hand to provide support or advice.

We can also provide other safety support services, such as tyre pressure sensors or driver tiredness monitors. Take a look at our Other Safety Services here.

Together with our fleet partners, we can help minimise the risks facing drivers as the roads return to normal.

For more information on how we can help, visit the Telematics section of our website and to see how the technology is used, read our wealth of customer Case Studies.

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