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Forget coaxing carmakers to make crucial safety measures standard or drivers into ticking safety option boxes. Just make it the law for your fleet
Aside from the odd Volvo driver of a certain age, safety has never been considered very sexy.
For example, I can't remember watching a James Bond movie and hearing Q spend much time talking up the safety features of any new sportscar. And have you ever heard 007 say: "Never mind the side door flame throwers and whizzy driver display, has it got ESC?" Thought not.
That's not to say all your fleet drivers will want to aspire to drive like the famous secret agent (he made a terrible mess of that Aston last time round) but just don't expect them to specify safety over shiny alloys or satnav, things you can talk about down the pub or impress your neighbours with. Human nature is daft like that, but then again no one likes a safety bore.
Electronic stability control (ESC) has been shown to reduce single vehicle crashes by up to 40% equating to 4000 saved lives and 100,000 serious accidents prevented every year. Factor in all the associated societal and financial costs and it's barmy that ESC - currently on about 45% of all new cars - isn't made a compulsory fit now. Without such regulation the Federation Internationale de I'Automobile (FIA) reckons only 77% of new cars will have standard ESC by 2012.
Still, the good news is the European Union is slowly grinding into action after it emerged that most member states are well behind their 2001 road safety objective of halving annual road deaths to 25,000 by 2010. A draft regulation presented last month has stipulated that ESC should become mandatory on all vehicles from 29 October 2012. Under the same regulation tyre pressure-monitoring systems would also become compulsory on all passenger cars, with emergency braking assistance and lane departure warning systems mandatory on all heavy-duty vehicles exactly a year later.
Meanwhile, you can make a difference now. It's up to every manager with responsibility for fleet to get at least ESC enshrined in fleet policy as a 'must-have'. Ticking the ESC box should also help impress duty of care and insurance evaluations, which in turn might then get a better hearing from hard-to-convince cash-conscious higher management.
To help things along it wouldn't hurt if carmakers made the well-proven kit - still costing in the UK on average £390 - a bit cheaper too. Posh satnav and sparkly wheels might be the preserve of rich people but safety shouldn't be.
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