Companies could see a reduction in the number of van insurance claims made if they develop on-road risk management strategies it has been stated.

According to the fleet information organisation, ACFO, firms can reduce their insurance premiums if they set up assessment, reviews and driver training programmes for its van drivers.

The advice came after figures from the Department for Transport revealed that 2,538 people were killed and 228,367 were injured in 170,591 road accidents in 2008.

According to the government, approximately a third of all casualties were the result of road accidents involving at-work-drivers.

ACFO said: "The overall road safety strategy should provide an accurate sub-strategy for driving at work/management of on-road risks, which is fair and unambiguous.

A clear, stable, well-defined performance indicator is definitely required: the proper identification of at-work casualties to ensure that an effective and accurate picture is built up, of the real extent of duty of care failures among the fleet community."

However, ACFO stated that a number of fleets have implemented a range of risk management schemes to control the road safety implications.

ACFO said: "Many of our members have already developed high-quality strategies and policies to manage the on-road risk exposure of their employees. Many of these include on-going programmes of driver training, assessment and review.

"Importantly, several clearly espouse the principles of the "zero-incident" culture where any incident, and in some cases even near misses, is investigated and analysed in a positive and non-accusatory manner to identify any lessons to be learned."