Time to Build Hierarchy Awareness into Commercial Driving Training Cycles

Specialist fleet insurance broker, McCarron Coates, is encouraging HGV fleets, bus and coach operators and courier companies to use Bike Week (June 10-16) to impart key training messages relating to driving around cyclists and to keep a strong audit trail of this training.

Whilst keeping cyclists safe has always been imperative, the penalties for fleets not training drivers in cyclist-aware skills, and taking every step to avoid their driver being involved in a collision, have never been so severe.

McCarron Coates says it is vital fleets provide refresher training for drivers, to ensure they are aware of new regulations and responsibilities around cyclists.  This includes keeping them abreast of new rules relating to cyclists, as published in the 2022 Highway Code.

Mccarron Coates’ worry is that many commercial drivers have not been provided with any toolbox talks or refresher training since the Hierarchy of Road Users was introduced in that Code edition.

This classed cyclists as one of the most vulnerable types of road user, close to the top of the hierarchy.  Those with the potential to do most harm – HGV, LGV and PSV drivers – are at the bottom of and charged with the greatest overall responsibility to keep other road users safe.

The new Highway Code preceded the introduction of new motoring legislation by only months.  The Causing Serious Injury by Careless or Inconsiderate Driving offence arrived in June 2022.  Through this law’s charging guidelines, any punishment of a driver causing ‘serious injury’ through careless or inconsiderate driving, is likely to be at its most severe if they are an HGV, LGV or bus and coach driver who has injured a cyclist, pedestrian, horse rider or motorcyclist.

“The implications are escaping many fleets,” says McCarron Coates director, Ian McCarron. “One reason is that our own research shows that 26% of people have not read the Highway Code in over 10 years, so are unaware of the Hierarchy.  If they are aware of it, they don’t necessarily recognise the implications for them and their commercial driving livelihoods.”

The award-winning broker also says many drivers are likely to be unaware of cyclists’ rights. 17% of people in general, and as many as a quarter of those in some geographical areas, believe cyclists are never allowed to ride down the middle of the road, at any time.

This is despite the latest edition of the Highway Code (2022) clearly stating cyclists can ride in the centre of their lane on quiet roads and streets, in slower-moving traffic and at the approach to junctions or narrowing roads. This is a reiteration of previous rules.

One key change in the 2022 code applies to cyclists’ priority over traffic waiting to turn into or out of a side road, if the cyclist is travelling straight on.  Vehicles cannot cut across a cyclist to turn either left or right and should not cut across cyclists when changing lane.

Additionally, drivers should allow a distance of at least 1.5 metres between their vehicle and a cyclist, if overtaking at speeds of up to 30mph.  At higher speeds, they need to allow at least two metres.

Whilst commercial drivers might not know the law, the police will.  Any incident involving a cyclist, in which there is any hint of careless or inconsiderate driving and where anything as ‘serious’ as a broken bone occurs, is likely to be investigated.

At that point, the police questioning will focus on training, policies and procedures, with particular emphasis on company culture with regard to risk management. An employer can then be implicated, if it is felt they should have done more to train their driver, amend their driving behaviours or ensure they understood rules relating to cyclists and other vulnerable road users.  

“A strong audit trail of training evidence and driver signatures that prove that training was delivered, is absolutely critical,” says McCarron Coates’ director, Paul Coates.  “It is something that can prevent an operator being dragged into a legal case and held responsible for a driver’s lack of awareness, driving behaviour of lapse in concentration.”

Being implicated as an employer is likely, if a driver being interviewed under caution is not offered legal advice from the very first minute.  A misinterpretation of statements is easy, if no legal representative is providing clarity.  Having legal representation allows for all possible defences to be considered and facilitates appropriate investigation and evidence gathering.

For this reason, McCarron Coates gives all of its clients its RTC Crisis Line service, which sees a legal expert, with in-depth experience of motoring law, assisting a driver involved in a police-investigated incident, from the minute the accident occurs.  In-person legal expertise is provided during the police interview and throughout the case, if anyone is charged.

“Fleet operators simply must teach drivers to be more aware of cyclists, their likely manoeuvres and their rights on the road,” says Ian McCarron. “If not, there are no fines under the new 2022 motoring law, just an automatic 12-month driving ban and potential imprisonment.  Cyclist-aware training days need to enter the training cycle now.”

For help with managing driver risk, talk to McCarron Coates on 0113 298 3489. More information is at www.mccarroncoates.com

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Editors notes

McCarron Coates is an award-winning insurance broker, based in Morley, Leeds, which is a specialist in fleet transport insurance and other niche areas such as roofing, scaffolding and woodworking insurance. It also supplies many other types of commercial insurance policies and risk management services, to clients nationwide and is highly respected as an industry thought-leader, within its individual spheres of influence.