Safety must be paramount when choosing a fleet vehicle. But according to research this is being overlooked. Bosch has revealed that when selecting a fleet vehicle, the decision makers cite vehicle reliability (94 per cent) as top of their agenda and safety in second at 89 per cent while duty of care (87 per cent) is ranked third.

A worrying statistic is that a third of all fleet managers admit to not taking actions and implementing initiatives to improve road safety.

Today’s vehicle safety technologies, in particular crash avoidance technologies open up new dimensions in driving safety. The Electronic Stability Programme (ESP) is a key technology in this respect and has been heralded as the biggest life-saver since the introduction of the seat belt. ESP is always alert and becomes active when vehicle skidding is imminent. It detects the risk of a skid at an early stage even before the driver and uses the vehicle’s brakes to steer the vehicle safely back on track.

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Only 66 per cent of fleet decision makers confirmed to have heard of ESP® though only 31 per cent could describe its safety benefits.

This on-line research was received from 215 fleet decision makers who collectively manage over 77,000 vehicles. The research was supported by ACFO, RoadSafe and eSafetyAware! who launched the pan-European ChooseESC! campaign in 2007.

Simon McBride