If however you are receiving a car allowance from your employer and using your own car for company business, it is important to look at the age and condition of the vehicle. As vehicles get older, especially if they are doing high mileage, they have more of a tendency to develop faults, some of which can cause accidents. If your car falls into that category, you could consider acquiring a new vehicle on Personal Contract hire, with the monthly cost covered by your car allowance. You will then have a vehicle that is safe and dependable and covered under the manufacturers' warranty.
If a vehicle is being regularly serviced by a main dealership then certain checks should be carried out that will ensure its safety. Although it is worth bearing in mind that service intervals can be quite far apart; service intervals of 18,000 miles are not uncommon nowadays. With many of the cars produced today, if a fault develops, a warning is displayed on the screen. However not all will show incorrect tyre pressure. Driving with the incorrect tyre pressure can be dangerous and is a cause of accidents; it will also increase your fuel consumption.
The effect that incorrect tyre pressure can have on a vehicle is quite dramatic; it can affect road holding, stability, braking, steering and can increase the chances of a high-speed blow out or aqua planning, aqua planning can be a frightening experience. Also one should consider that one of the conditions of an insurance company providing insurance cover is that the vehicle should be in a roadworthy condition. Allowing your tyre pressures to be at the incorrect level could be deemed as not maintaining your vehicle in a roadworthy condition.
It can be a nuisance to have to check your tyre pressure, when all you want to do is fill up with fuel and get on. Especially when having made the effort the machine doesn't work. In any event it is also probably not the best time to be checking tyre pressures, because tyre pressures should be checked when the tyres are cold. This is because the pressure increases when tyres are hot. One alternative is to have your own good quality tyre pressure gauge, they are not expensive and you don't then have to search for a machine that works properly just to check the levels; apart from which not all machines at petrol stations can be trusted to be accurate. Tyres lose pressure over time, so checking them should not be left more than two weeks.
A cause of many road accidents is mobile phone use whilst driving. Unless you have a voice activated system and a hands free kit, it is just not worth it. A real danger is when drivers attempt to dial numbers whilst in motion, sometimes at high speed. As extraordinary as it may sound, some even attempt to read and write messages whilst driving. Much is talked about thinking distances; the time it takes between a driver realizing there is an incident and taking action. These drivers are not even looking at the road, resulting in even more vital seconds being lost, which can make the difference between life and death.
If there is a serious accident, particularly if there is a death, the police will almost certainly check your mobile phone records to see if you were on the phone at the time of the accident. It is important to bear in mind that whilst you are much safer with a voice activated hands free kit, you would not necessarily escape prosecution under these circumstances; it is considered to be unsafe to use any form of phone, hands free or otherwise, whilst driving. Figures show that you are up to four times more likely to have an accident whilst using a mobile phone and even with a hands free kit your reaction times are seriously impaired. An employer can also be prosecuted if they require an employee to engage in business calls whilst driving.
Driving in excess of the speed limit is without question a major cause of accidents, however it is not as straightforward as it may first appear. Who is more dangerous the person who drive at 80 mph on a clear motorway or the person who drives a 40 mph in a residential street where there are children playing? Indeed many people feel that 30mph is too high a limit for many small residential roads.
One of the most dangerous combinations is driving too fast for the road conditions and too close to the vehicle in front. In Spain where it seems to be almost a national pastime to drive at high speed, as close as possible to the vehicle in front (in a survey carried out in 1996), they have 14 deaths per 100,000 of population compared with 6.1 for the UK. Portugal was far worse with 21.1; overtaking on blind bends seems to be popular in Portugal. Greece was not far behind with 19.7 and Luxembourg was a surprising 17.1. All worth taking into account when you plan your next driving holiday.
Overall you are fortunate to be doing your business miles on UK roads, although it's worth bearing in mind that some roads are more dangerous than others. Insurance provider yesinsurance.co.uk says that the most dangerous roads in Britain are single carriageway and in particular in hilly rural areas. If combined with this, the road is on the way to, or in an attraction like a national park they say it is even more dangerous. No explanation is given as to why this might be the case. The safest roads are of course motorways.
It could be argued that those who are driving at speed when late for a meeting are more dangerous than those who habitually drive in excess of the speed limit; driving at speed in a stressed state and impatient with other road users, who are in your opinion holding you up, cannot be safe by any stretch of the imagination. If you are to be safer on the road it is vital to avoid this situation, it is also a very unsatisfactory state in which to turn up to a business or sales meeting.
Fortunately this situation is easily avoided. If you follow this simple plan it will not happen; firstly work out how long your journey to a meeting is going to take and then allow an extra 45 minutes. Take a file that you need to work on, or your laptop and if indeed you do arrive 45 minutes early, use that time to do your work and the last 10 minutes to prepare for your meeting. The success of your meetings will improve significantly. Secondly avoid making one more call or sending just one more email before you leave for a meeting, you will always leave late and end up rushing. When it is approaching time to leave gather what you need to take with you, find your car keys and your jacket and then if there is still time to do something else before you leave then fine. If not leave it, nothing is so urgent that you then have to take risks to try and arrive on time.
The most unfortunate accidents on the roads are those caused by people who are (often during work related driving) Driving whilst tired. They are unfortunate because they are not the result of an error or misjudgement in driving but due to the decision by someone to continue driving, after receiving a warning that they are getting too tired to drive. In almost every case there are warning signs before a driver falls asleep at the wheel. This normally takes the form of a momentary loss of concentration, a feeling that the eyes are starting to close, a general feeling of drifting or of thoughts wandering.
The driver should immediately stop. If it is not safe to stop, for example on a motorway, then action needs to be taken; turn the heating off, if you have air conditioning put the cold air on, open the windows and breathe deeply to get oxygen into your lungs. If you can safely do so, put your elbow out of the window, the cold air will cool the blood. Then stop at the first opportunity. If you can walk around for a few minutes and get a coffee, all the better. Some people find that by putting the seat back and sleeping for just 15 or 20 minutes, the tiredness goes completely.
In summary:
1) Take into account vehicle condition, if the vehicle you are driving is well maintained by the company or on Contract Hire, in which case it will probably be on average less than two years old, you do not as a general rule need to worry too much about it's condition. If however you are receiving a car allowance and your vehicle is older or high mileage, it may well be worth considering using your car allowance to acquire a new vehicle on Personal Contract Hire. You could alternatively use your allowance to acquire a new vehicle using one of the other funding methods such as, Personal Contract Purchase or Hire Purchase.
2) Ensure that your tyre pressures are always correct, it may save your life and it will certainly save you fuel.
3) Avoid mobile phone use when driving. Always at least have hands free voice activated system and remember that whilst at the moment it is not illegal to use a hands free kit when driving, the fact that you were on the phone could be taken into account in the event of an accident. 4) Drive within the speed limit, that may sound boring but losing your life in an accident is quite boring too and driving at excessive speeds makes very little difference to when you actually arrive at your destination. It does however make a significant difference to your fuel consumption.
5) Don't drive at speed when you are stressed or late for a meeting. This is when you are most likely to make a mistake and everything and everyone on the road will appear to conspire to make you even later, just accept that you are going to be late.
6) Never Drive whilst tired, heed the warning signs that tell you that you are too tired to be driving.
Should you have any queries or questions with regard to Fleet Management, Contract Hire, Personal Contract Hire, Lease Purchase or vehicle Hire Purchase, please do not hesitate to contact us. Bowater Price plc 01494 536 536. www.bowaterprice.com.
