Frightening Statistics Show Business Drivers To Be Dangerous

Thursday, 15. October 2009

Lex Autolease have carried out a study on 21,000 vehicles used for business with some startling results. Driver negligence has not only pushed up maintenance and repair bills but also resulted in fines for drivers and even loss of licences. The biggest cost burdens have been misfuelling, windscreen damage, illegal tyres and vehicle downtime. Average cost to replace a windscreen is £435 and misfuelling costs on average£341 to correct, still a problem as companies swap back and forth between diesel and petrol. Tyres are also a headache with 29% of vehicles used for business running on illegal tyres. Amazingly almost half of business drivers have had an accident in the last year whilst one in six at work drivers have committed an offence with nearly 40% for speeding and one in five involving mobile phones. Expect some hardening of the speeding punishments following the publication of road casualty figures by the Department for Transport that show speeding as a major problem. Speed related factors were cited in relation to 586 road deaths accounting for 25% of all fatalities on the UK’s roads. By Graham Hill