Earlier this year, it was announced that by October 2016, all speed cameras on motorways and A-roads in the UK would be painted yellow. This comes as good news to car drivers and fleet managers alike, as it will avoid harsh braking and the costs this can incur, and make all roads safer in general.
No more greys
Although the cameras on local roads are already yellow, the ones on major highways are often grey and hidden out of motorists’ view. The repercussions for being caught speeding, however, are the same for both – a £100 fine and three points on the driver’s licence. The announcement of a move to visible cameras will put a stop to claims that the cameras are money-making machines, instead of a sensible road safety feature.
In a press release dated November 14, head of external affairs for the RAC Pete Williams said: “The government’s reassurance that all motorway speed cameras will be painted yellow by October 2016 is long overdue and brings a welcome degree of consistency, which will ensure that the road safety benefits of the varied types of cameras are maximised.”
He’s right, and it’s definitely a development you should share with your team if you run a fleet. But how can you make sure you stay on top when it comes to knowing the law and sharing it with your employees every time an update comes into play?
Make sure you know
In order to keep your fleet updated, you first need to work out a system to keep yourself up-to-date. Sign up to relevant industry newsletters (such as the one on Commercial Fleet) and make sure you scan through them every couple of days in order to pick up on news. Google Alerts are also a good tool to set up, as they allow you to enter several search terms specifically relevant to your business or fleet. These will be delivered directly to your inbox as links for you to read.
Meetings with your team
Getting everyone in the same room is one of the most productive ways to share legal updates, as you can be sure that all the news has been heard and any queries or confusion can be raised immediately. Try to arrange regular workshops as well as meetings, so that your team can get involved and take the changes on board in a way that’s more constructive.
If it’s not possible to get everyone together, there are plenty of apps at your disposal that allow you to share information regularly. Skype and Whatsapp even offer functionality that allow you to know whether or not a message has been read, so you can be sure that your team have the knowledge they need.
Try to avoid sending your team updates as emails as it’s often a hindrance rather than a help – the average worker spends 28% of the day answering and reading emails, and that’s too much. People don’t like to have brimming inboxes and ‘non-urgent’ internal updates often get pushed to one side or simply ignored. If you don’t have any alternative, make sure your team read it by including a mandatory question or request for feedback at the end.
Reference material
The key here is making updates as easy as possible to share. Following meetings or updates, create documents with links to more information, using project sharing boards such as Trello.
Give everyone a login and restricted editing rights so that all of your staff can make comments and share their opinion. If you have an intranet, you could upload essential documents and forms that need to be filled in onto this instead. For example, if you manage a fleet of cars, everyone responsible for driving should read and understand the how to winter proof their cars.
If your budget is slightly higher, consider creating an online learning programme. This will allow you to track how much each of your team has progressed, and whether there are any areas for development.
Signed documents
When the law is concerned you must make sure you and your fleet comply with new regulations as well as understanding them. Make sure you know who is responsible for what and that you have collected relevant signatures from people, confirming that they have read and understood the documents they need to.
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