How’s my driving

The brainchild of Tom O'Sullivan, Dublin based How's My Driving Ltd, was established in May 2001 to
monitor the driving skills of client companies' drivers. The 'How's My Driving' logo can now be seen
around the country on over 500 commercial vehicles and the figure is growing by the week, writes John
Loughran.

The How's My Driving scheme has been widely acclaimed in the United States as an important road
safety initiative. The scheme is also very popular in the UK and throughout mainland Europe. Tom
O’Sullivan was surprised upon his return to Ireland in October 2000 to discover that the scheme wasn't
available here.

He revealed: "I had seen the How's My Driving stickers around Europe and thought it was a super
idea. I assumed with the strength of the Celtic Tiger that some Irish company would be supplying the
service. I checked it out and discovered that wasn't the case. Within the space of two weeks I
established the company."

Thornton's Waste Disposal, Midland Waste Disposal, TV3, Pat The Baker, Buttercrust Bakeries,
Dungarvan Transport, Oxygen Environmental and Freightshift are just a few of the companies that
have already seen the benefits of signing up for the How's My Driving road safety initiative.

While Tom is happy with the present level of uptake, he feels it will only achieve a broad market
appeal if financial incentives are available. To that end he is currently in negotiations with the
insurance industry. He commented: "We hope to get the insurance underwriters onboard, because
they are the ones who are in a position to offer incentives to commercial fleets and even private
drivers to take on this initiative. I am currently in negotiations with the four main underwriters, Royal
Sun Alliance, Allianz, Hibernian and AXA but it is too soon to predict the outcome of those
negotiations."

Tom's biggest marketing tool in the recruitment of new clients is not surprisingly, his existing
customer base. He commented: "I have letters from most of my customers outlining their
experiences since taking up the How's My Driving scheme. They tell of a reduction in accidents, a
reduction in incidents reported, a reduction in speeding and parking fines. The feedback from my
customers has been incredible."

While the bulk of the calls logged by the company are complaints about individual drivers, Tom
explained that positive and complimentary calls are also received. "We do get complimentary calls
which is always nice, but 95 per cent of the calls are complaints. The calls may be about the driver or
equally, about the condition of the vehicle. We report back to the client with all that information."
The company has a 24-hour call centre that operates seven days a week. "When somebody rings in
they are answered by a live operator. You won't get an answering machine. All the caller has to do is
give the vehicle licence plate number or the vehicle ID code. The calls are logged, including the
weather conditions, the location, the nature of the complaint etc. The incident report is then completed
and either faxed or emailed to the client within 10 minutes of the call being logged."

To safeguard against crank or nuisance calls the company takes the caller's number and rings back
immediately. "If it is a crank call, the caller normally won't give his / her number, so the system is
absolutely water tight," Tom added.

Tom believes that client customers can achieve a marked improvement in driver behaviour within a
matter of weeks of signing up for the scheme. "We find that the incidence of calls tend to be at their
highest within the first two or three weeks of taking on a new customer. Drivers forget the sticker is on
the back of the truck. As their employers bring them to task, you will find that call volume tapers off.
At that stage you know the stickers are doing their job."

The cost to join the scheme is euro 37.50 plus VAT per truck per year, irrespective of the volume of
calls How's My Driving Ltd take on the customers behalf. Tom revealed: "You are guaranteed to have
people at the end of the line taking calls about your vehicle 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The
fee includes everything, from talking the call, the labour management costs, to sending you an email
or fax. It is an 'all in' price and represents great value.

Tom and his staff are based at 2nd Floor, 13 Upper Baggot Street, Dublin 4 and can be contacted on
Lo-call 1850 354535. Sean Murtagh of Freightshift International, based in Raheen Industrial Estate in Limerick believes
there are benefits in the How's My Driving scheme. "We felt it was a way for us to audit what we were
doing from the point of view of driving. We didn't introduce the scheme to catch out drivers. We carry
out extensive driver training ourselves and this scheme helps to audit our driving."

He continued: "There is no point in a company putting the stickers on its trucks if it doesn't offer
training to its drivers. Otherwise implementing a scheme like this is unfair. All of our drivers are
assessed at least twice a year."

"The wrong reason to implement this scheme would be to keep an eye on drivers. We have reduced
the number of small scrapes because we have raised driver awareness and the How's My Driving has
helped in that respect as part of the overall package."

"The insurance companies in this countries are slow to endorse any type of training. Most people think
that if they spend money on safety they should get a reduction in their premiums. If you spend
money on safety you will get a reduction in accidents and that is where the savings are to be made."