Error parsing XSLT file: \xslt\FacebookOpenGraph.xslt Richard Schooling's Blog: 18 January 2008
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Richard Schooling's Blog: 18 January 2008

Date: 18 January 2008

Richard Schooling

Maybe it's an evolutionary thing. We humans are very good at ignoring problems until we find them staring us in the face.

Hazard perception

Maybe it's an evolutionary thing. We humans are very good at ignoring problems until we find them staring us in the face.

Severe weather, for instance. Apart from the odd hurricane, bad weather rarely comes as a complete surprise in Britain. The Met Office has a well-oiled process for issuing accurate advanced warnings.

Nevertheless, it seems that every time there is a storm - even a clearly forecast one - thousands of motorists get caught out. More than 33,000 drivers called the RAC for help in one week at the height of last summer's flooding, for instance.

So, even though there's a weather alert on as I write, it comes as no surprise to discover that two thirds of drivers still prefer to ignore storm warnings.

That figure comes from a survey we carried out among 1000 drivers to find out what they would put first - a 'don't travel' plea by the authorities or their own perceived need to get to work or make an appointment.

More than half said they would go if they felt the journey was important enough to take a risk. 10% said they always ignore weather warnings anyway, because they believe conditions rarely prove to be as bad as the forecasters predict.

Men predominate in the "just ignore it" camp (no surprises there). Company car drivers, despite having presumably greater experience of the vagaries of UK driving conditions, are only slightly more ready to heed warnings than private drivers.

I guess it all comes down to human nature. The weathermen say "snow" but the view from the window says "clear" - so we take a chance. We know the weather could close in disastrously a few miles down the road but we are instinctively conditioned to respond only to clear and present danger.

That raises the question of whether businesses are any different from individuals when it comes to heeding "weather warnings" for their fleets. Right now, large areas of turbulence are building up across the world's energy map.

Fleet policies are likely to be swayed, if not rocked, over the next three years by rising energy costs, which are being driven by long term constraints on global oil supplies. High fuel prices are only part of the equation: expensive oil also drives up the cost of producing components such as tyres and ultimately cars themselves.

Whenever there's a weather warning, the meteorologists' message to travellers is, "if you have to make a journey, make sure you are well prepared".

Even in a mature and robust fleet sector like the UK's, that is wise counsel for anyone planning their route ahead for the next three or four years.



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