• Masterlease comments on the pre-budget report - Oct. '07
• Licenced not to kill - Aug. '07
• Food for thought - biofuel comment - Jul. '07
• Low emission plans wide of the mark - May '07
• Call to tackle downtime - May '07
• Everybody's fuel - Biofuel comment May '07

• Park Strife - parking training for drivers - April '07

• Ensuring Continuity - business continuity release - April '07
• Masterlease launches FAGNAV™ - 1st April 2007
• Budget Comment - Mar. '07
• Everybody leaves empty-handed - Feb. '07
• Hot convertibles - Jan. '07
• Beware of poor carbon copies - Jan. 2007
• Speed limiter legislation - Dec. '06

Park Strife - parking training for drivers - April '07

The recent unveiling of the self-driving vehicle at the Science Museum in London may have drivers across the country eager to experience the new technology, but risk management experts at leading fleet management firm Masterlease say UK drivers need to get to grips with current technology before they get too excited about future car features.  

Nipping in and out of tight car parking spaces may seem easy when your car is fitted with the latest technology/gadgets such as parking sensors, but Masterlease warns that over-reliance on such devices can hit businesses where it hurts when manoeuvres don’t go according to plan. 

The recent statistics from over 2,000 vehicles, supplied by Masterlease, revealed the extent of damage to motors and expense of accidents through parking and slow speed manoeuvring. 

Masterlease discovered that the average repair cost of a small car is over £830.  As expected, executive cars cost the most to repair at an average cost of £880, but were only involved in six per cent of accidents.

Gavin Jones, head of risk management at Masterlease, comments: “As useful as parking sensors are, they cannot detect low-lined bollards or impacts to the side of the vehicle.  Drivers are increasingly relying on new technology to be their eyes and ears and forget the importance of the very basics – mirrors and windows.

“At Masterlease we offer courses that include training on parking and manoeuvring for all categories of vehicles.  Our training encourages drivers to use their own senses and advises them on risk management issues that aim to improve parking, reversing and low speed manoeuvring.  One employer in particular encountered 32 claims in one year which cost it over £53,000 and put them at a loss ratio of 133 per cent.  The following year they started using the driver training and reduced the claims by half.  Of the claims that occurred the costs of the accidents were much lower and as a result the loss ratio was only 31 per cent for the entire year.”

Masterlease says more employers are putting vehicle users on driver training courses as UK repair bills for vehicles are now estimated to be over £7 billion a year, as a result, many businesses are being hit badly by downtime and costly claims.   

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 For further details please contact Beth Heaney at IAS SMARTS on 0121 456 3199 or email: beth.heaney@iassmarts.com