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Company car drivers on the road to nowhere

<em>Poor roads, lack of investment, and speeding are all on the company car hit list agenda</em> <strong><br />THE state of the UK's roads gets a blasting from company car drivers. It's the sort of response you might expect if you asked them. And the RAC has done just that. </strong><br /><em> Story: Ralph Morton</em><br />

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Author: RALPH MORTON

If you had to drive every day, how high would your blood pressure be?

Traffic jams, diversions, delays, re-planning meetings…sales targets missed. It’s hardly a recipe for calm and fruitful behaviour.

Little wonder that, when it comes to roads, company car drivers have short shrift for them when asked. (It’s a bit like lighting the blue touch paper and retiring…)

One company brave enough to do the asking – no doubt at a suitable distance – has been the RAC. In its latest Report on Motoring, 85% of company car drivers said not enough of their motoring taxes were being reinvested in roads. And congestion was getting worse.

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Hands up if you weren’t expecting that answer?

Quite.

So given the frustrations of second rate roads with potholes for road surfaces, the pulverising futility of endless traffic jams, it’s hardly surprising that – given a clear stretch of road – company car drivers put their foot down.

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Nine out of 10 company car drivers admit to driving in excess of the speed limit on motorways, and some 38% of them favour no form of penalty for minor speeding offences.

David Bizley, RAC technical director, said: “We recognise that company car drivers are under huge pressure to complete each journey as quickly and efficiently as possible, so the importance of maintaining roads to a high standard and speed restrictions are all key issues for those who drive for business.

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“However, it is worrying that such a high number of company car drivers are breaking speed limits and view this as somehow less serious than other motoring offences. Good business must not come at the expense of road safety.

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“Helping business to keep moving safely is why we welcome the Government consultation on raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph.”

Despite the desire to get to places quickly – after the inevitable hold ups – company car drivers are watching the pennies.

Nearly half say they will reduce the amount of their business mileage if fuel prices continue to rise while a similar amount say another company car issue is to drive more efficiently to conserve fuel.

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