Company Car Drivers Are The Fastest On The Roads
Rumour Has It That Company Car Drivers Are The Fastest On The Roads and Are More Likely To Accumulate Points. How Do They Compare To Other Drivers?
September 12, 2014
If you’re a company car owner then you are more likely to drive faster than other drivers. That’s the result of new research that has found almost nine in ten company car owners admit to exceeding the speed limit on motorways, compared to just two thirds of other drivers.
Experts are warning company car drivers that they are more at risk of accumulating penalty points on their license as a result of speeding. Keep reading to find out more and to discover why company car drivers may also be more likely to be involved in road accidents.
Company car drivers are more likely to exceed the speed limit on motorways than other drivers with almost a third saying that they were just following the flow of traffic when driving at more than 70 mph.
Company car drivers were almost three times more likely to hit 90mph or more, with 8 per cent admitting exceeding 90mph, compared with 3 per cent of regular drivers.
When asked why they exceeded the speed limit, a fifth (19 per cent) of company car drivers put it down to the driving conditions being favourable. 15 per cent said that 70mph felt too slow and almost one in 10 (8 per cent) said that modern cars are built to go faster than the speed limit dictates.
The RAC research also revealed that company car drivers believe it is more acceptable to speed on motorways than on other roads. Nearly two-thirds (65 per cent) of company car drivers feel that it is perfectly acceptable to travel up to 80mph in a 70mph limit and nine in ten of them would like to see the speed limit on motorways increased.
"Whilst drivers may feel tempted to save time in the working day by going faster, any fleet manager knows that collecting speeding points is ultimately bad for business.”
Driving is the most dangerous work activity that most people do. According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) it is estimated that around 150 people are killed or seriously injured every week in crashes involving someone who was driving, riding or otherwise using the road for work purposes.
And, as well as admitting to driving too fast, research from RoSPA has found that company car drivers are more at risk of fatigue related road accidents than other drivers. Company car drivers are one of the groups most at risk of falling asleep when driving alongside young male drivers, truck drivers and shift workers.
RoSPA found that young male drivers are most commonly involved in sleep-related road accidents while shift workers and commercial vehicle drivers may have a higher risk of sleep-related crashes due to work-related factors.
