GreenRoad's new Worldwide Fleet Driver Performance Benchmark Report shows that in 2011, the GreenRoad worldwide average safety score dropped to 22 versus 29, a 24% drop.


The report aggregated 2011 data representing actual driving behavior of 85,000 fleet drivers logging over 127 million trips and 7.4 billion miles across North America and United Kingdom.

The driver performance and safety management company uses in-vehicle technology that captures and tabulates risky or fuel-inefficient driving events to calculate the safety score. The lower the score is, the safer the driver. Driving is measured across five major categories: braking, acceleration, corner handling, lane handling and speeding.

The report shows geographic differences between North American and U.K. Safety Scores. In North America, speeding is the most dominant safety event, making up 40% of the average safety score's risky maneuvers. Sharp cornering is next, at 26%, with harsh braking following at 16%, lane handling at 10% and rapid acceleration at 8%. In the U.K., harsh braking is the most common risky behavior at 43%, followed by sharp cornering at 39%, lane handling and acceleration at 8% each and speeding at 2%.

"U.K. fleet routes are largely urban environments with extensive roundabouts and other road features that require precise cornering ability," says Jim Heeger, chief executive of GreenRoad. "On the other hand, North American fleets tend to drive in a more mixed environment of urban, suburban and rural environments with more freeway and highway driving, thus you see the tendency for fleet drivers to speed in the U.S."

According to the data, 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. is the riskiest driving time in North America, and in the U.K., 11 p.m. to midnight is riskiest. In the U.K., December is the safest fleet driving month, and January the riskiest month, while in North America, average safety scores do not vary widely month-to-month.

The report compared 2011 drivers with 2010 drivers who logged more than 500 driving hours with GreenRoad. The sample included 1,000 drivers who have accumulated the most driving hours on the GreenRoad service from companies with fleets that represent the general market.