Last month saw Brake launch a new free-to-join Global Fleet Champions campaign. Sarah Plumb, senior fleet officer, tells International Fleet World how the new initiative enables fleets of any size, anywhere to prevent crashes and reduce pollution caused by vehicles used for work purposes.

Global Fleet Champions provides best practice guidance, webinars and other events to help members manage and champion occupational road risk reduction

What is GFC?

Global Fleet Champions is a brand-new, not-for-profit campaign to prevent deaths, injuries and pollution caused by vehicles driven for work. Administered by Brake, the road safety charity, it aims to help tackle the rising epidemic of road deaths, injuries and poisonous air from vehicles. It is completely free to join and calls on all organisations that use vehicles for work purposes to prioritise safety and sustainability. The campaign is underpinned by five pillars that support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Decade of Action for Road Safety and its ‘safe systems’ approach to road safety. The five pillars of Global Fleet Champions are driver behaviour; journey routing and modal choice; vehicle procurement and maintenance; incident analysis and intervention; and community outreach.

What’s the reasons behind the changes?

Road crashes are now the eighth leading cause of death globally. The latest World Health Organisation report on the global status of road safety revealed that road crashes are the leading killer of children and young adults (aged 5-29 years) across the world – this simply cannot be ignored. Global Fleet Champions has therefore been created to meet this need and to provide a platform to campaign for safety and sustainability. We want individuals, communities, businesses and governments to get involved.

What new benefits does GFC bring for fleets? 

The fantastic thing about Global Fleet Champions is that membership is now free. This means that regardless of budget anyone anywhere in the world can become a champion and gain access to best practice in managing occupational road risk. In addition to new research, new reports and events we have also launched our brand new webinar series ‘The Essentials of Fleet Safety’. This is a series of five, 60-minute webinars to give champions the essential elements of running a fleet safety programme. The webinars are based on the five pillars of Global Fleet Champions: Drive behaviour, Incident analysis and intervention, Vehicle procurement and maintenance, Journey routing and modal choice, and Community outreach.

What sort of fleets is GFC suitable for and how does it strike a balance between global and local fleet strategies?

Global Fleet Champions is suitable for all fleets regardless of budget, size, and vehicle type. All champions have access to a programme of free and low-cost events and a library of resources giving best practice guidance on key topics related to road safety and sustainability. Whilst we will continue to deliver an extensive UK domestic programme, our global offering has increased and our content is created to be applicable to all countries and all types of fleets.

How will the fleet standards committee enhance the new campaign?

We are incredibly proud to welcome our expert standards committee comprising of academics and industry professionals from across the world. Their wealth of knowledge and experience will undoubtedly be valuable as they will advise on the global fleet champions agenda and the content related to our provision of knowledge for fleet operators, and our advocacy work to governments on the topic of work-related road risk management.

How will the new Global Fleet Champions Awards build on the Brake Fleet Safety Awards?

The Global Fleet Champions awards will allow us to celebrate best practice in fleets working towards safe and healthy mobility anywhere in the world including in low and middle-income nations where occupational road risk management is evolving slowly, and is in urgent need of promoting and encouraging.

Awards will be given across five categories that reflect the five pillars of the Global Fleet Champions campaign, and will be issued throughout the year at ceremonies in the nation in which each award-winner is based. Award entries are welcomed from organisations operating anywhere in the world, running any size or type of fleet.

Our UK and New Zealand-based awards will continue to run as part of our awards programme alongside the Global Fleet Champions awards.