Jordans Finds At-Work Driving Carries The Greatest Risk

JORDANS, renowned world-wide for its natural foods, has introduced risk awareness workshops, online risk assessments and driver training after recognising that its company car-driving staff face the greatest risks in its business.

The health and safety conscious, family-run company, which has been making cereal-based products in the UK for more than 150 years, assessed the risk of every task in its business before identifying at-work driving as posing the biggest potential risk for its company car drivers.

Jordans, winner of National awards for Health and Safety in 2003 and 2004, turned to the experts and called in award-winning risk management and driver training specialists Peak Performance to help tackle the issue.

Peak introduced a series of measures in conjunction with Jordans Health and Safety Advisor Tony Draper for all the company employees who drive company cars or their own cars on company business - around 40 in all.

All staff have gone through Peak’s renowned "All of a Sudden" risk awareness workshop, while online risk assessments were introduced to identify those whose risk profile indicated that on-the road training would be appropriate.

Tony Draper said that the measures had been designed to be preventative rather than reactive.

"Every year far too many people die on our roads while driving for business and the Health and Safety Executive has been giving this area far greater attention and profile.

"We were keen to show that we were meeting our duty of care to our employees and, in addition, have re-written our company car policy to take into account measures such as regular safety checks, eye-tests and licences checks, so that the drivers fully understood their responsibilities and we clearly identified ours.

"The measures we have introduced with Peak have brought home to our drivers the risks they face out on our roads and have helped update them with the latest safety and driving techniques, " he said.

James Sutherland, managing director of Peak Performance said: "The introduction of risk awareness workshops, risk assessments and behind-the-wheel training in this way means that Jordans has responded to the risks facing its drivers, and will additionally lead to reduced costs and frequency of accidents.

"These initiatives will also create an audit trail which is clear evidence of effective risk management in line with the latest Health and Safety Executive guidelines," he said.