Fleet vehicles

375 vans 
81 cars

“Our vision is always to protect our colleagues, stakeholders and the environment and maintain a business that sends everyone home safely every day. Our aim is the continual improvement in our road risk management principally through engagement with our drivers and driver managers. Understanding the performance metrics and behaviours across our fleet provides greater us with visibility of the key risk areas facing the business and allows our management teams to focus resources to make our vision a reality.”

Duncan McNicol, Head of Risk & Compliance, CBES Ltd

Business Benefits

• 35% reduction in speeding events Q1 2025 vs Q1 2024
• 58% reduction in at-fault claims Q1 2025 vs Q1 2024
• 47% reduction in total claims costs Q1 2025 vs Q1 2024
• 60% reduction in First Notification of Loss (days) Q1 2025 vs Q1 2024

The Challenge

• The CBES LCV fleet averages 16,800 miles per vehicle annually, comprising:
• Driving to/from customer premises to provide reactive works (breakdowns/ equipment failures), or to undertake planned maintenance.
• Driving to/from client construction sites to undertake our fit out and engineering services.
• The support team travelling to/from all the above sites to undertake site inspections, project management and attend/host client meetings.

CBES also provides a cash allowance for an at-work vehicle to approximately 200 employees, and a salary sacrifice scheme for colleagues who opt for an electric vehicle.

The company’s main challenge is to continue to influence driver behaviours through engagement across all our teams, to improve safety rates despite a rapidly growing fleet.

Engaged Management

Collecting, understanding and disseminating key driver data has been the bedrock of CBES effective road risk management. A monthly report is distributed to all account leads and operational managers, which contains a breakdown of their teams’ driving performance for the previous month. Giving managers all the relevant information allows them to have effective and personal discussions about road safety throughout the business. CBES’ telematics provider has a portal to which all driver-managers have access, allowing a real-time view of their teams’ performance.  

The senior management team also actively monitors the same data, including the 30 highest risk drivers per month. The relevant line manager is required to confirm that those on the list have been supported and encouraged to reduce their speeding events. 

This proactive management led to a 30% reduction in speeding events in 2024 vs 2023, and maintaining a 35% reduction in Q1 2025.

The monthly data analysis has also helped it to target effective interventions. The data shows that the majority of speeding events take place in 50mph and 60mph zones which indicates a knowledge gap for its LCV drivers. The company installed reminder stickers in all cabs and ran webinars for its drivers, supported by the driver-managers. 

One of the key engagement tools used by CBES is the Van Driver Toolkit from Driving for Better Business.

“The feedback we get about the DfBB toolkit is pretty positive, it’s great to have the detail but presented in a way that’s easy to digest. It gives us a different way to engage – the material has a lot of credibility behind it, and it’s so easy to share.”

Alex Petrie, Regional HSE Advisor for CBES Ltd

Extracts from this toolkit are distributed each month to the business’ LCV drivers with links to the online resources, to keep the drivers informed without flooding them with information.

Incident Reporting

The regular reporting means all drivers and driver managers are fully aware of how important it is to report all incidents. 

Developing a culture in which everyone is responsible for and informed about road safety has been pivotal for CBES. This allows them to meet the challenge of fleet growth and expanding head count, while not diluting its road safety efforts. The challenge, of course, being to instil the desired culture and behaviours within all the new drivers. This is significant because the business’ fleet grew by 14% in 2023-24 and again by 25% in 2024-25, yet CBES has achieved a reduction in at-fault claims in 2025. 

This reduction is commensurate with the rise in positive indicators of safe driving culture. Through 2024, the average miles driven before speeding (AMBS) rose by 42% and the average speeding events per van dropped by 30%. CBES is seeing these behaviours maintained in Q1 2025 with a further 44% rise in AMBS and 40% drop in speeding events per vehicle. 

In addition to line managers being responsible for ensuring road safety, and discussing breaches with drivers, the company also recognises the best performing drivers each month and each quarter. These regular awards recognise the drivers who consistently demonstrate positive driving behaviour.

Driving for Work Policy

CBES has a firm corporate commitment to ensuring that health, safety, and the environment is at the forefront of our values, supported by robust, integrated business management systems registered to ISOs 45001, 9001, and 14001. 

The company has a comprehensive and explicit driving for work policy called the Vehicle Management, Safety & Use Policy. It details:

• the roles & responsibilities of line managers and drivers
• expected behaviours in such areas as speeding, vehicle monitoring, the use of handheld devices, as well as other performance indicators
• fleet procedures including

• Monthly reporting to driver managers, highlighting the best and poorest performing drivers 
• Driver Improvement Plans for the Top 30 poorest performing drivers, granting each driver 3 months to improve 
• Focus on engagement and influencing behaviour over immediate sanction. 
• Implementation of driver improvement plans 
• Distribution of DfBB Van Driver Toolkit, branded and customised in partnership with DfBB 
• Regular engagements via events, webinars, and regular mailshots 
• D365 vehicle safety checks and journey management (dedicated helpdesk) via a collaborative approach. 

The self-led improvement plans in particular have met with significant buy-in from the drivers, and have improved behaviours of drivers engaged in the programme with the support of their line managers and risk teams.

CBES business found a range of benefits from improving driver risk management, including: 

Cost of claims: in 2024 it recorded a 9% decrease in claims costs overall while tracking an 11% decrease in the average cost per claim (4.1). Without including an abnormal cost (vehicle theft), total claims costs reduced by 20% and average cost per claim was down by 22%. 

The company says that effective communication and collaboration between the driver and their line manager, where driving style and performance can be discussed openly, has clearly improved standards. It has also allowed them to achieve safety goals while maintaining and fostering good working relationships throughout the business.

Knowledge Sharing

CBES has taken advantage of the huge pool of expertise available in the road safety and fleet community. It says benchmarking & knowledge sharing is a vital and ongoing part of its continuous improvement programme, helping it to access the best advice, technical knowledge and updates.

CBES Head of Risk & Compliance sits on the ScORSA steering group along with partner organisations through the RoSPA/ScORSA network. It also shares information and learning, with colleagues presenting on driver fatigue and other topics at industry events including the Scottish Parliament Cross-Party Group for Accident Prevention and Safety Awareness. 

It subscribes to Driving for Better Business (DfBB) and Brake, and is a member of the Scottish Occupational Road Safety Association (ScORSA).

Its road-risk management programme has led to recognition, being highly commended for the SHE Awards in Road Risk Management, and winning the RoSPA Fleet Safety Gold Award for the past 12 years which entitled them to Presidents’ Award which is reserved for those who have excelled consistently for at least a decade.