Partnership focusses on commercial vehicle use to Drive for Better Business

05/07/2023

With around 300 road traffic collisions each year involving vehicles used for commercial purposes, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Vision Zero Partnership is looking to educate businesses during the National Commercial Vehicle Month.

Throughout July, the partnership will be running a local campaign to highlight commercial vehicle road safety. The aim is to help educate local businesses on why road safety is important, both financially and morally, and assist with helping them manage their work-related road risk.

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service will lead on several seminars for local businesses to discuss Driving for Better Business, a free government-backed programme providing tools and resources to help businesses improve their management of work-related road risk. Several industrial parks will be hosting free seminars for their tenants, and other local businesses have been offered free, bespoke briefings to discuss how the programme benefits their business.

Kathleen Bowman, Community Road Safety Officer for the partnership, said: “Work-related road risk is an important consideration to any business where employees drive on behalf of the business. This applies to every size of business, from national haulage companies to local trades businesses, delivery firms, engineering companies who conduct site visits, estate agents that visit properties, carers that travel to different clients homes each day.

“Businesses wanting to request a free seminar or briefing can do so, as we are really keen to reach as many places as we can during this month of activity. This could be especially useful to small businesses where driving is a small component of their daily workload and those that don’t have a dedicated fleet or driving manager.

“This will also help to highlight the excellent collaborative work between local businesses and residents to help keep vulnerable road users safe and reduce the risk of collisions on the county’s roads.”

To arrange a session, businesses can email road.safety@cambsfire.gov.uk to find out more, or check out @CambsRoadSafety on Twitter. 

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Vision Zero Partnership is made up of several local organisations including Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service, Cambridgeshire Constabulary, Peterborough City Council, Cambridgeshire County Council and National Highways, who work together to promote road safety and aims to reduce serious and fatal road collisions by 50% by 2030.