A number of company car drivers still use handheld mobile phones whilst at the wheel, despite proposals from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to charge drivers whose phone use causes danger with dangerous driving.
According to a survey of 500 company car drivers by Alphabet, 30% of respondents make and receive calls whilst driving. Of this group, 31% said they would stop using their mobile phones entirely if the CPS' proposal goes through and 43% said that in the future they intend to use a hands-free device. Seven-out-of-ten respondents, meanwhile, claimed never to use a mobile phone behind the wheel.
A further 18% of company car drivers who use mobile phones behind the wheel said they would continue to use a handheld phone behind the wheel "more carefully", while 8% refuse to change their behaviour at all, even when faced with a jail sentence.
Some 60% of employers, however, said their company policy disallowed staff from using their mobile phones while driving earlier this year. Yet, a mere 6% of company car drivers who switch off their phones whilst driving said that they do this because of their company policy.
Mark Sinclair, head of Alphabet, said: "I think that companies should be very concerned by these findings. Once again, they show that safety policies have very little influence on actual driving behaviour."
