With safety a top priority, AA Business Services' latest yellow paper [1], ‘Our Driving Future: Making Human Factors More Predictable', is a must-read for fleet managers and drivers alike. It explores the role human behaviour plays in driving safety, how it's evolving and ways to mitigate the impact..

As humans, we're complex beings. While technology may be evolving at pace to increase our safety behind the wheel, the greatest factor that determines the risk of a collision is human behaviour.

The statistics speak for themselves when it comes to the importance of prioritising safety. The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that around 1.19 million people die each year as a result of road traffic incidents. This is estimated to be the eighth leading cause of death across all age groups globally, and is set to rise. In the UK, someone is killed or seriously injured on our roads every 16 minutes according to the Department for Transport. For businesses, driving can be one of the most dangerous activities that your employees will do. Around a third of road deaths involve someone driving for work (UCL and Agilysis). Yet, every road death is preventable and avoidable.

According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) definition, ‘Human factors refer to environmental, organisational and job factors, and human and individual characteristics, which influence behaviour at work in a way which can affect health and safety'. Driving requires a combination of visual, manual, and cognitive skills. It's no surprise then, that human error is a component in 95% of all road incidents (RoSPA).

Mitigating the impact

The good news is, while the impact of the human on driving is inevitable - even when we consider autonomous technology such as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) - we can take proactive steps to minimise risk. Firstly, knowledge is power. Audit your fleet, drivers, and risk actions so you're armed with the full picture. You can then take informed action. There's tools out there to support with this, including Drivetech's PULSE Light fleet risk health check. It only takes around 20 minutes to complete and you get a free report with actionable insights at the end too.

Secondly don't overlook driver training. It should be used proactively to help prevent incidents on an ongoing basis. Technology has dramatically shifted the possibilities for training, making it quicker and more cost effective than ever to include it as part of health and safety regimes. There's e-learning, workshop and on-road options to best suit different businesses and risk profiles. Driver training should be in conjunction with a regular driver education programme. It all comes down to embedding a positive culture of risk management in the fleet.

Looking ahead

It's time to make zero road deaths a reality. To achieve this goal, we must all put driver behaviour at the heart of our decision making. Every business can do this with the right combination of technology, training, education and supporting driver wellbeing.

As the driving world continues to change, one thing is certain. At The AA, we're always listening, always ahead, to give drivers and businesses the best guidance and support when it comes to safer driving and empowering risk reduction. We're with you every step of your journey.

Find out more, including how driver wellbeing and new technologies are impacting risk. Click HERE [2] to download a free copy of the Yellow Paper Our Driving Future: Making Human Factors More Predictable and please visit AA Business Services [3] for further information