Educating drivers – why greater road awareness and education is at the heart of future change

Recent statistics show that UK road deaths in 2024 rose by one per cent year-on-year. This equates to losing at least four people every day on our roads. Department for Transport (DfT) provisional data for 2024 shows there were 1,633 fatalities on the road last year. Of those who died, 977 were males aged 17 to 69 and 235 were working-age women. In addition, 66,245 men aged 17 to 69 were recorded as casualties, alongside 38,468 women. I think everyone will agree that (while unsurprising), these figures are nothing short of shocking – and in vast need of a turnaround. Quite simply, one death on our roads is one too many. 

A third of all road deaths involve someone driving for work (UCL and Agilysis). It’s vital as employers that we all take note of these numbers – broader driving habits are evolving, influenced by trends such as the rise in business travel, urban congestion and increasing fleet reliance. Companies are managing growing pressures on driver safety, operational efficiency and environmental responsibility, while drivers navigate changing road networks, technology adoption and shifting attitudes towards speed and risk.

Regardless of purpose, every single journey undertaken should end safely. We believe that driver education is one of the most effective tools we can use to ensure this happens – every single time.  

Recent statistics show that UK road deaths in 2024 rose by one per cent year-on-year. Photograph: iStock

Driver education saves lives  

At Drivetech, we operate a range of courses offered by the police to drivers who have committed an offence to help educate drivers on dangerous driving behaviours. Our national courses are part of the National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme (NDORS).

Over half a million drivers attend NDORS courses run by Drivetech each year, contributing to lower reoffending rates and improving public road safety across the UK. The insight this has given us into driver behaviour has made us really unique as a business, when it comes to understanding why education matters (and when it comes to improving road safety outcomes, it really matters). 

Our reliability and reputation in the sector is underpinned by our strong police Net Promoter Score of 74 (world class) and a Trustpilot rating of 4.7. We deliver effective, insightful and respectful driver education that genuinely helps people make safer choices behind the wheel. 

Anecdotal feedback from course attendees indicates that they gain a lot from the courses, especially around understanding why speed limits matter and more often than not they describe feeling motivated to change. In 2020, over one million drivers completed a National Speed Awareness Course (NSAC), according to UKROEd (United Kingdom Road Offender Education), who manage the NDORS Scheme on behalf of the police service.  Research from the Department for Transport found that 15.5 per cent of drivers who refused an NSAC reoffended between April 2012 and 2017, compared with 13.4 per cent of course participants.

Drivers who completed a course were subsequently caught speeding 23 per cent less often after six months and 10 per cent less often after three years than those who declined the course, demonstrating a lasting impact on behaviour and road safety, and also, again, the boost education provides to road safety outcomes.

Positive impact

This positive behavioural impact underlines the value of our partnerships with police forces across the UK. We work with the Metropolitan Police framework which covers delivery across eight additional regional forces and also Merseyside Police in the north-west. Most recently, we started working with Sussex Police to deliver police-referred driver offender courses across the county. We also believe that tackling road safety is a societal responsibility. Beyond our work with the police, we partner with many businesses and public sector organisations to ensure people driving for business understand the risks. 

Photograph: iStock

Our work with Sussex Police

Like many forces, Sussex Police is committed to the nationwide campaign to tackle the ‘fatal five’ behavioural causes of collisions on our roads, which are the most prolific cause of injury collisions on the roads: drink and drug driving, mobile phone use at the wheel, not wearing a seatbelt, excessive speed and dangerous or careless driving. Sussex Police sees our work as an integral part of its mission to tackle the five fatal behavioural collision causes.

Like us, Sussex Police see offending as requiring a blend of approaches, including education. Sussex Police has welcomed the new partnership with Drivetech as one that will support its goals to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on the roads of Sussex through education of road users as a positive alternative to other disposals. This includes its focus on the fatal five offences. 

More than 45,000 drivers in Sussex have been caught speeding by volunteers over the last year, figures shared by Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Katy Bourne.1 Alongside the work of community speedwatch volunteers, the public reported more than 13,000 incidents of dangerous and antisocial driving via Operation Crackdown. 

Empowering with confidence and awareness
 
Quite simply, when it comes to reducing road deaths, we believe that enforcement, community engagement and targeted education are the way forward. Through online and face-to-face training, we empower drivers to drive with both confidence and awareness that safety must be an integral part of their daily journeys. Education too is only part of the story. What’s needed is a change in mindset across the board, with more refresher courses for drivers scheduled in as standard – not just when an offence has been committed. 

In the meantime, Drivetech, the police, road safety organisations, businesses and individuals all have a role to play. Road safety is everyone’s responsibility. As a collective, we need to be doing more to make zero road deaths a reality – and together we can!

For more information, visit: drivetech.co.uk

Leo Taylor is a director at Drivetech, from The AA