IAM Fleet, the commercial training division of the Institute of Advanced Motorists, has over many years successfully applied Virtual Risk Manager® online driver assessments to help reduce Occupational Road Risk in the UK and internationally.

Developed over the past 10 years by Interactive Driving Systems®, Virtual Risk Manager® has been designed to monitor and improve fleet and work-related road safety, helping organisations identify, manage and reduce occupational road risks.

A key benefit of the system is the ability to explore and determine an individual's exposure to risk through a 30 minute assessment that examines four areas:
• Driver attitude.
• Knowledge.
• Behaviour.
• Hazard perception skills.

Once completed the assessment generates a driver profile and risk rating which is emailed to the employer, providing measured information about the employee's approach to driving. The system will then provide guidelines on the steps required to improve driver safety.

IAM Fleet uses five Virtual Risk Manager® modules:
• Driver Assessment and Indexing - an assessment of competency, allowing organisations to identify drivers most at risk and implement remedial action.

• Risk Management Information System - real-time reporting and analysis of critical fleet risk management key performance indicators (KPIs).

• Crash Free Culture - an IT-based system for risk managing drivers, vehicles and corporate reputation.

• Computer-based Training - a range of driver training modules to help ensure drivers have and maintain a basic knowledge of how to minimise their risks both before and after on- road training .

In addition to assessing and improving the driving safety of current employees, Virtual Risk Manager® is also used as part of the recruitment screening process for potential employees, as well as in the selection of agency and temporary drivers.

Derek Camp, U.K. Business Manager for IAM Fleet commented: 'The issue of an employer's duty of care obligations to their drivers has never been so critical. Virtual Risk Manager® provides our clients a helping hand in the timely identification and remedy of driver safety issues in our overall solution to reducing Occupational Road Risk'.

Andy Cuerden, European Managing Director at Interactive Driving Systems® said 'We have a long standing and successful relationship with the IAM dating back to 1995 and have worked closely with them to improve road safety for a number of major clients including British Telecom, Jacobs, Atkins, Faithful and Gould, Robert Bosch, Mitsubishi and Cannon UK'.