A new study is set to explore if behavioural profiling can be used by businesses and the fleet and insurance sectors to identify whether someone is a high driving risk. Driver Safe 2015 is being undertaken by Applied Driving Techniques, the leading provider of fleet compliance and risk management solutions, and will involve more than 20,000 drivers from some of the UK’s leading businesses. 

Driver Safe 2015, commencing towards the end of this year and supported by leading road safety charity Brake, will seek to investigate the possibility of accurately predicting a driver’s inherent risk status using a behavioural profiling approach incorporating psychometric, emotional intelligence and motivator profiling techniques. It is expected that drivers taking part in study will come from leading health-and safety-focused, UK-based organisations, encompassing a diverse range of car, van and commercial vehicle operations within different sized businesses and industry sectors.

If the research is successful, it could lead to the development of a ground-breaking behavioural diagnostic test and reporting system, providing a scientifically-validated driver risk tool that can provide significant benefits in the areas of both driver recruitment, accident reduction, road safety, fleet management and insurance. In fact, pre-launch benchmarking activity has already shown that it is indeed possible to effectively benchmark the best and worst drivers to help define an “ideal” driver profile, allowing this approach to be used to enhance and streamline driver recruitment.

“Our aim is to both help significantly improve driver recruitment and address the limitations associated with current driver risk assessment,” explains Dr Jim Golby PhD FCIPD, Director of Research and Customer Experience at Applied Driving Techniques. “We are looking to demonstrate that there is indeed a relationship between an individual’s specific behavioural profile, their personality characteristics and their overall attitude to driving and actual observed behaviour behind the wheel of a vehicle. If proven, this could be a highly beneficial finding in terms of preventing and addressing risk and enhancing the driver recruitment process.”