Company car drivers committed a motoring offence once every working minute in 2012, according to research by Lex Autolease.
Based on its 270,000-strong fleet upscaled to cover the full UK car and LCV parc, fleet drivers racked up more than £7m in fines during the year in committing more than 121,000 offences – a 10% rise compared with 2011.
Based on a standard working week of 35 hours, Lex said this equated to an offence every 50 seconds.
The most frequent infringements occurring in company-owned vehicles were speeding and illegal parking, which combined accounted for two-thirds of all offences.
The number of these offences increased sharply year-on-year, with a 12% hike in speeding to almost 34,000 incidents and a 13% leap in illegal parking to 45,760 infringements – more than a third of all driving offences on Lex’s database.
There was also a dramatic rise in cases of fleet drivers caught using bus lanes.
The number of bus lane incursions was up 30% year-on-year, accounting for one-in-10 of all offences.
Contrastingly, London Congestion Charge fines incurred by company vehicle drivers dropped 8% to 9150, suggesting most motorists are now aware of the requirements of the Transport for London scheme.
Other offences, including dangerous driving, driving without due car and attention and driving into box junctions, totalled just over 20,000, accounting for 17% of infringements.
Ian Thomson, Lex Autolease’s fleet boss, said the pressure on company car and van drivers on tight deadlines to complete journeys quickly could have a detrimental affect on driving behaviour.
“It is worrying to see an increase in the total number of motoring offences and in particular a rise in speeding-related infringements. Fleet managers have placed a great emphasis on health and safety during the past few years,” he said.
“Under their duty of care obligations they must continue to educate their drivers about the need to drive safely and the consequences of poor motoring behaviour.”
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