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ACCIDENTS OVERPLAYED DO agency drivers have four times more accidents?

9th January 2003, Page 20
9th January 2003
Page 20
Page 20, 9th January 2003 — ACCIDENTS OVERPLAYED DO agency drivers have four times more accidents?
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Are the accidents they are in 25% more expensive? According to the FTA the case isn't proven, and I don't think our clients would agree with those statements either (CM7-13 Nov).

Yet your headline and caption are, to say the least, alarmist. They give the impression that agencies are guilty well before all the evidence has been submitted.

Our 100 offices supply about 50,000 shifts per month. Over the first six months of this year, the number of driver negligence insurance claims submitted to our brokers was less than three per month, during which time our drivers travelled an estimated 12 million miles.

Nor do our customers think that using our drivers increases the number of accidents. It certainly wasn't something 4,000 of our clients remarked on in a recent customer survey.

Overall your article gave a balanced perspective in the risk management research. And even I can't take issue with the suggestion that a poorly briefed agency driver in an unfamiliar vehicle is more likely to have an accident than the regular driver he is replacing. But the casual reader may well see your headline and caption without reading the rest of your report.

Reducing accidents is a common goal for all involved in the transport industry-and that includes us. We are constantly looking at ways to improve driving standards.

Jahn Bisset Chief executive, Driver Hire, Bingley, West Yorks.

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