An innovative scheme might make our roads a little bit more pleasant. Barry McCall reports.
How many times have you been driven close to road rage by a bus pulling across in front of you without indicating, or a truck hogging the outside lane on the motorway at 40 mph? The natural urge is to do something, anything. Some people ring Joe Duffy or Marian Finucane. The rest of us probably go home and kick the dog.
The answer to at least part of this problem may be at hand in the form of How's My Driving? Founded by Tom O'Sullivan almost 18 months ago, the scheme offers companies what amounts to a public monitoring service of their fleets.
How's My Driving? provides durable, reflective, all-weather vehicle signs for commercial vehicles and licence plate casings for company and private cars which can be displayed on the rear of any vehicle. Each sticker and licence plate casing reads How's My Driving? and displays a call save number: 1850 354535.
A motorist who sees a vehicle with a How's My Driving? sign or number plate casing being driven recklessly or discourteously can call the 1850 number and give details of the incident. Callers can also compliment a driver's driving behaviour or report the condition of a load on a trailer.
Each How's My Driving? vehicle sign also displays a unique four-digit ID code. The vehicle's owner, make, model and colour are automatically confirmed once the unique ID code or licence plate number is given by the caller.
"I worked in Britain for three years as a sales manager for an Irish firm selling into that market," says Tom O'Sullivan. "I saw a similar scheme there and assumed there must be one in Ireland. When I came home I found there wasn't anything like it here. Having worked in the centre of Dublin and witnessed appalling driving at first hand, I decided to set up How's My Driving?"
The system works by the public calling in to report reckless or discourteous driving of a vehicle owned by a How's My Driving? client. The client then gets these reports and can address the issues raised.
"By systematically asking a series of questions in relation to each incident we get all the relevant information, which is then forwarded to the client in the form of an incident report sheet," says O'Sullivan. "In all cases we determine the validity of each report by phoning each caller back at the phone number they are calling us from. Our quality control ensures that clients get usable, accurate information and eliminates the majority of nuisance calls."
While the system has clear benefits for corporate image - after all, who wants their company identified with careless and reckless driving? - it also has real safety benefits. "Our experience shows that, over a period of time, the number of calls about vehicles displaying How's My Driving? signs or licence plate casing decreases, proving that this initiative does and can change negative driving behaviour," says O'Sullivan. "We conducted a survey of some of our customers involving 220 vehicles at the end of last year and found that accidents and insurance claims had decreased by 76 per cent and the overall cost of claims had been reduced by 84 per cent in a year-on-year comparison between periods with How's My Driving? and without."
The annual cost is €47.50 plus VAT per vehicle. Response so far has been good but could be much improved if there was a better response from the insurance companies, according to O'Sullivan.
"In other countries such as the US and Britain where such schemes operate, there are incentives to join in the form of reduced premiums. If insurance companies here were to bring in such incentives it would have clear benefits for road safety."
Indeed, his case is borne out by the fact that How's My Driving? is well and truly in the running for a prize at tomorrow's National Safety Council Endeavour Award.
While the scheme has delivered clear benefits to customers, others have doubts about its efficacy. One fleet manager with a large Irish retailer told The Irish Times that it could be an invitation to cranks or competitors to make nuisance calls. "Our logo and contact numbers are clearly displayed on all of our vehicles," he says. "If people have a problem with one of our drivers they can ring us. I think having special signs up is simply an invitation to complain and this may not always be useful."
But what about those vehicles such as sales reps' cars which don't boast signage? "You might as well put a sign up saying 'please break in, valuable goods inside' as put a How's My Driving? sign on the back of a rep's car," says the same source.
Good arguments but as O'Sullivan says: "The facts speak for themselves: accidents and claims are reduced. Furthermore, how many companies actually have a system in place to register complaints about their vehicles? Most people wouldn't bother to ring a company's number but they do ring us."