The Health & Safety Event is the UK’s largest gathering of anyone responsible for running a safe and efficient workplace. While delegates may come to hear about new personal protective equipment and safe lifting devices, this is where they can also learn about their biggest work-place risk – driving for work.
Over the three days, Driving for Better Business will help health and safety professionals understand the common weaknesses of many organisations whose employees use vehicles for their job and, most importantly, how to create a driving for work policy. This is a vital tool for achieving legal compliance, building a safe driving culture, and setting out the standards expected of drivers.
Each day is centred around a Mock Trial – an eye-opening walk-through of a serious road incident that results in the company’s safety management systems coming under scrutiny, and highlighting key areas where employers fail to meet their obligations.
Driving for Better Business will then demonstrate a brand-new online resource that employers can use for free to write, review and communicate a good-practice driving for work policy to their workforce.
“This is a major event for us,” says Simon Turner, Campaigns Manager for Driving for Better Business. “Last year, the Mock Trial was a massive draw for visitors, with many commenting that they would like their senior team to have the same experience so they could understand the risks and weaknesses in their driver management culture and to recognize that legal responsibility for driver safety sits at the top of the company in the same way that any other occupational health and safety issue does.
“Now, we are presenting a free, clear and practical toolkit to help organisations create a robust policy, adapt it to their own company profile and get critical alerts when official guidance or legislation changes that could affect the policy.”
The three-day programme is also packed with presentations from fleet and legal industry leaders including:
- Prof Tim Marsh, Managing Director at Anker Marsh
- Charlotte Le Maire, a specialist criminal and regulatory lawyer and barrister
- Mel Clarke, Health, Safety and Wellbeing Director at National Highways
- John Wilkinson, Driver Safety and Performance Manager for Northern Powergrid
- Duncan McNicol, Head of Risk and Compliance at CBES Ltd
- Pete Rushmer, Managing Director at Flagship Partners
- Dr Lisa Dorn, Associate Professor of Driver Behaviour at Cranfield University and Founder and Director at PsyDrive
- Prof. Clare Anderson, Professor of sleep and circadian science at Birmingham University
- Karl Wilshaw, Fleet Director at Travis Perkins
- Kate Walker, Managing Director of the Diabetes Safety Organisation
- Anne-Marie Penny, DfBB Programme Manager for National Highways
- Tavid Dobson, Road Safety Lead at Rail Safety & Standards Board
- Dai Fussell, Head of Compliance for the UK Civil Service
- Andrew Drewary, Managing Director of Road Safety Smart, multi-award-winning road safety specialist in collision/incident investigation.
Driving for Better Business is also bringing together a range of expert partners to give guidance on how to manage driver safety effectively. These include: RED Driver Training, IAM RoadSmart, Flagship Partners, CheckedSafe, Randox and Drivetech.
