How's My Driving: Frequently Asked Questions

• Scheme protected as a registered trade mark
• Individually numbered badges (TAG Number)
• Unlimited use of our 24 hour freephone facility
• Call centre handling and logging of incidents
• Unlimited faxing/posting of incidents to depots
• Quarterly breakdown of incidents in a comparative summary
• Quarterly newsletter
• Help desk
• Call back facility
• Manual & Report Log
• Monthly TAG Lottery for Drivers

3. How does it work?

How's My Driving? works on two levels: by highlighting trends it alerts management to impending problems and with knowledge of a particular problem management can choose the most suitable intervention to combat it; it keeps risk awareness high in the minds of the drivers and encourages them to consider how their driving affects other road users. Broadly speaking it achieves these benefits by providing the quarterly comparative management report which breaks down all the calls into call types i.e. speeding, cutting up, compliment, etc. and compares the number of calls in each subsection with the national average.

The incident report generated from the caller’s comment is used to generate the quarterly management report but it also provides the driver with direct evidence of what a member of the public thought of his driving and how he was affected by it. If the management use their reports intelligently, have committed enough resources to supporting How's My Driving? and have kept road risk upper most in the minds’ of their drivers, then the company should experience improved accident figures and the development of a safety culture within the company.

4. Will it cost the public to give their comments?

No. How's My Driving? operates a freephone 0800 number so if you deliver a comment through a landline the call will cost you nothing. However, if they make a call to our call centre from a mobile phone, they will be charged at their normal mobile phone tariff. Alternatively members of the public can go on line and comment through the How's My Driving web site.

5. Will it reduce my costs?

This depends on you. If you set up a culture of risk awareness within your organisation and use the information generated through How's My Driving? to help you make intelligent choices for interventions, then you should see a significant reduction in accidents, which in turn will reduce your fleet costs. If your drivers have been successfully encouraged to take more care while driving you may experience less costs in fuel and servicing etc.

These reductions in costs cannot be attributable to the How's My Driving? badge alone but will be due to your diligent and intelligent management of the information we give you and the culture which our scheme helps to develop.  

6. How will it reduce my costs?

The scheme will help you to reduce your costs by assisting you in finding ways of correcting problems with your drivers and their driving styles. It will also help you to reduce costs by assisting you in creating, developing and maintaining a risk awareness culture within your organisation. Through How's My Driving? providing you with a means of interactive benchmarking we can help you better manage your organisations occupational road risk.

7. How will it make my drivers better?

The scheme cannot make your drivers better but the scheme can help you in predicting and assessing your drivers needs by helping you to choose the best solutions to combat the excessive risks into which your drivers are placing themselves.  

8. What proof is there that it works?

A number of case studies have been carried out that indicate accident reduction figures of over 50%. (these are available to you on request) However no scientific study will be able to provide proof that the wearing of the How's My Driving? badge is the direct cause of fewer accidents or improve public perception leading to greater sales. The How's My Driving? scheme is an essential part of a road risk strategy, and it is that strategy, diligently managed by yourself, which will reduce accidents or produce a lasting improvement in the public perception of your organisation. When soldiers are given guns and asked to fight, they will not blame defeat on their guns but instead will look to their training, strategy, communication and commitment. Likewise success as an athlete is not due simply to ones running shoes but to a whole programme of mental and physical preparation over a requisite period of time. They say the proof is in the pudding, but to start with one has to make an educated guess as to whether one can obtain all the necessary ingredients and provide adequate cooking facilities.

9. Do you offer advice throughout the year?

We would be delighted to hear how you are getting on with the scheme and the details of any good or bad issues that have arisen. You may speak to our help line or book a conversation with the general manager of How's My Driving?. However, we can also offer you expert assistance from our network of specialist transport consultants. These professionals will be able to help you in a number of areas including: setting up and implementation, ongoing monitoring, keeping the scheme fresh, evaluation of courses of action and preparing insurance reports. These consultants are controlled and monitored by How's My Driving?, so you may be assured of our best attention in supplying you with the most suitable consultant.  

10. How many companies are on the scheme?

There are in excess of 450 companies and organisations currently subscribing to the How's My Driving? scheme. This number is constantly increasing, in spite of the fact that we are obliged, in the interests of all our members, to remove some companies who misuse the scheme and use it as an instrument of oppression towards the drivers.  

11. How many vehicles wear the badge?

There are approximately 30,000 vehicles in the UK, which display the How’s My Driving badge. Each of these 30,000 vehicles can be individually recognized by its own unique badge number.

12. When did How’s My Driving start?

How’s My Driving was only established 5 years ago but we were the first independent feedback company in the UK. We were then, and remain, market leaders in the provision of independent feedback – no other company in the world supplies such a range of independent feedback covering activity in so many sectors. For the last 14 years there has been a number of driver feedback companies in the United States, but the schemes seem largely to have been used as instruments of oppression and as a consequence a large number of these badges worn by US vehicles are defaced.

13. Can I call How’s My Driving both day and night?

Yes. We have a 24-hour call handling facility. Our call handlers are trained to give a sympathetic response whilst at the same time ensuring all the information necessary to locate the precise driver is taken from the caller.

14. What do we have to do to join the scheme?

To be a member of How’s My Driving you are required to complete an application form stating the number and size of badges you require, fill in a method of use statement indicating how you intend to set up, run and evaluate the scheme, and sign an undertaking which includes inter alia to use the scheme in a blame free culture, to remove damaged badges, replace them with new ones and to remove badges from vehicles which are no longer registered with the scheme. When you send back the agreement, the undertaking, the method of use statement and payment, we will send out your badges with a reconciliation form. As you affix the badges to the rear of your vehicles you must write the badge number in one column and the registration number of the vehicle to which that particular badge has been affixed, in the adjacent column. When this badge reconciliation form is returned to us we shall enter its information into our computer system, at which point you will become a fully functional member of the How’s My Driving scheme.

Successful entry onto the scheme is however, dependant on our satisfaction with your method of use statement. It must comply with our principles, which are stated on the undertaking form and contained within the method of use guidance notes.

15. Can we get help in processing, monitoring and evaluating the call information?

We are currently in the process of producing software packages that will help you to order and manage better the information you receive. However, should you feel that you would like some expert guidance in analysing the feedback to accurately assess the most suitable interventions to improve the performance of your fleet, we have a risk management consultancy partner who should be happy to help you. Our consultants are some of the most reasonably priced transport consultants in the industry and represent excellent value for money.  

16. Is this scheme anything to do with road rage?

The How’s My Driving scheme offers many contributions to the improvement of the standards of driving and behaviour on our roads. We prefer not to be linked only to road rage. However, How’s My Driving can play a significant part in reducing the number of road rage incidents on our roads. The badge is perceived by the drivers, and experienced by the callers, as having a defusing effect in tense situations. Rather than a caller hurl abuse at a driver who wears the badge, or even worse resort to physical violence, a caller is more likely to resist a heated reaction by choosing instead to report that driver to How’s My Driving. We have received comments from many callers who have stated that if it had not been for our badge they would have got out and hit the other driver.

17. Will membership of the How’s My Driving scheme reduce my insurance premium?

Not automatically. There are a number of insurers that are willing to make a percentage reduction to a client’s insurance premium because they are prepared to better manage their road risk. However, to equate a scheme such as How’s My Driving with an immediate drop in one’s insurance premium is to misunderstand the scheme and to misunderstand the obligations of insurance underwriters. The scheme, in itself, does not reduce accidents. It raises the awareness of the driver and helps fleet managers to better control the risks of their fleet. Some insurance companies have a much more active involvement in risk management and are prepared to reward fleets who have managed their own risk so well that it has led to fewer accidents. Clearly it is important to establish your intentions with the insurance company so that they are informed in advance of the steps you are taking, the structure of the initiative and the money you are investing to achieve your goals. The How’s My Driving scheme is evidence to the insurance company that you are serious about managing your own risk . However insurance companies do need to see results.

The How’s My Driving scheme is certainly likely to improve your relations with your insurance company, especially if you have suffered high claims prior to renewal. You may be able to restrict the extent of the rise in your renewal premium by announcing your membership of our scheme, or an insurance company might be prepared to keep you on for another year when they would have normally decided not renew your policy.

18. How can I get the drivers on board?

Driver cooperation is key to the success of this scheme. Generally the way to achieve cooperation from anybody is to involve them in the planning, monitoring and evaluation and to keep them regularly informed as to your intentions and forthcoming actions. Drivers wearing the badge are no different. There is little direct benefit to the driver in subjecting himself to public recrimination for his driving behaviour, so naturally he is reluctant to be part of the scheme. This reluctance can be eased by you clearly and carefully explaining why you wish to join the scheme and what you hope the benefits will be. If drivers are not given full information about your intentions they will draw their own conclusions and rumour and conjecture will slowly create an atmosphere of fearfulness leading to surliness and the eventual defacing of the badges. Most drivers fear that the badges will be used by the management as a means of spying on them and used as evidence to justify their dismissal. Most drivers are unaware that a dismissal based on reports received through How’s My Driving would be judged unfair by an industrial tribunal.

One way of eradicating this fear is for the senior management to issue a policy statement which clearly states the management’s commitment to managing their own risk and their commitment to improving standards of safety within the fleet. Secondly, a no blame culture must be established so that the drivers need not fear the public making comments about their driving. We offer driver presentations for £95.00 plus expenses where we explain the purpose of the scheme and highlight our independent status. Many companies have chosen to hire our consultants for these presentations as a means of introducing the scheme to the drivers. However we cannot speak for the management and it is still essential that the management issue their own policy statement and procedure for using the scheme in addition to our presentation.

It should be noted that the How’s My Driving scheme will bring to the fore any previous disharmony between the management and the drivers. If the management have a reputation for being heavy handed then the drivers are likely to be suspicious of the management’s intentions behind employing the scheme. If there is a history of disharmony then greater preparatory work will need to be undertaken to set the drivers’ minds at ease and to induce them to cooperate with the scheme and its aims.

19. How do I get the unions on board?

The unions are interested in the welfare of their members and tend to be suspicious of any scheme which appears to threaten these interests, particularly those that could be used to assist the management in justifying dismissals. Therefore the same approach must be used with the unions as with the drivers, by clearly stating the management’s intentions and inviting the union to play an active part in the administration of the scheme. Stress should be placed on the fact that the How’s My Driving scheme helps the management to better manage their occupational road risk and this initiative should lead to a cab being a safer working area. One could also stress one’s legal obligation as an employer to provide a safe system of work for the employees and this scheme assists the management in doing just that.

20. What about malicious complaints?

Very few people deliberately set out to make a complaint with the soul intention of ruining a driver’s reputation as an able, safe and courteous driver. However it is perfectly possible that a caller will have made a mistake as to the rights and wrongs of a particular incident and will believe themselves wronged when in fact they were, to a large extent, responsible for the incident. Drivers are often angry that they are being judged by drivers who are far less competent then themselves. But whether a caller is malicious or mistaken, the driver need have no fear if the scheme is being administered properly. In a no blame environment, the driver will be merely confronted with the incident report. If the driver believes that the report is malicious or inaccurate then he need simply ignore it. The incident report is for his reference and will only impact his future behaviour if the driver himself acknowledges the accuracy and validity of the incident report.

It is just feasible that a driver could be the victim of a hate campaign. If this were the case it is highly likely that the incident report would demonstrate a pattern and lack credibility. In our five years of operating the How’s My Driving scheme we have never known such behaviour.