What is a fleet risk assessment?
A fleet risk assessment lists the ways your vehicles and drivers could cause harm on the road, rates each one, and records the controls that bring it down to an acceptable level. It covers the whole operation: speed, fatigue, night and desert journeys, loads, yards and site gates, weather, and the people around your vehicles.
It is different from a journey management plan, which assesses one journey before it starts. This register is company-wide and reviewed on a set date; the journey plan applies its rules to each trip.
Who needs a fleet risk assessment and road safety program?
- HSE and fleet managers who need a written road safety program for management or a client.
- Contractors asked for a road risk assessment in a prequalification or tender.
- Companies whose drivers use private cars for work, the "grey fleet", which a program should cover too.
IOGP notes in Report 365 that driving-related incidents have historically been the single largest cause of fatalities in its member companies' operations, which is why energy clients ask for a structured approach to road risk.
How to use the fleet risk assessment template
- Check the risk matrix and match the bands to your company matrix.
- List the risks, one per row, choosing the factor from the ISO 39001 list so no area is missed.
- Add controls for High and Extreme risks in order of preference: eliminate, substitute, engineering, administrative, protective equipment. Rate the residual risk.
- Link each risk to a KPI and its data source, such as night km share from the tracking report.
- Profile drivers and routes to decide who to coach first and which routes need a journey plan.
- Fill in the Word program, have it signed, and review both files yearly and after any serious incident.
How is fleet risk scored?
The bands are the same as in Safee's journey management plan template, so a hazard rated in both gets the same level. The driver risk profile adds points for night driving, events per 100 km, incidents, fines and training that is not current; its weights and limits are your choices on the Settings sheet.
Worked example: sandstorms on desert roads
- Before extra controls: likelihood 4, severity 5, score 20, Extreme: the activity should not continue as it is.
- Extra controls: stop trips on a visibility warning and a written safe-stop procedure. After controls: likelihood 2, severity 5, residual 10, High, so the operations manager approves and the risk stays on the review list.
- KPI: trips stopped for weather, from the incident log. In the example KPIs, September had 1 crash over 415,000 km = 2.41 crashes per 1,000,000 km; January to September: 12 crashes over 3,585,000 km = 3.35.
Common fleet risk assessment mistakes
- Training as the only control. Look first at removing or changing the journey, then at engineering.
- No residual rating. Without it you cannot tell whether the controls are enough.
- Risks with no KPI. A control you do not measure tends to fade.
- Forgetting the grey fleet and subcontractors. Their crashes are still your road risk.
- A register written once. Review it on its date, after serious incidents and when work changes.
Limits and sources
The template is a generic working tool. The factor list and KPI groups follow the road traffic safety performance factors of ISO 39001:2012, and the fatality statement comes from IOGP Report 365. It does not claim to meet ISO 39001 or any client's standard, and it sets no speed or driving-hour limits: those come from your authority or company policy, so check your authority's current requirement. Driver profile weights and color limits are company choices, not a standard.