Illegal driving makes our roads more dangerous, and can result in severe penalties for those who are caught.
But which illegal activity is most common on UK roads? Let’s go through the most common contraventions of UK driving law, as well as how many of each category have been recorded since 2011:
Speed limit offences - 15,904,000
Since 2011, speeding offences have consistently been the most common driving offence in the UK and have increased by an average of 5% each year to a total of nearly 16 million.
Miscellaneous offences - 2,998,000
Including neglecting road regulations (not speeding) or failing to supply information.
Licence, insurance and record keeping offences - 2,666,000
Including driving while disqualified, uninsured vehicles, false statements of insurance, fraud and forgery. Driving offences in this category increased too, by 6% between 2014 and 2018.
Dangerous, careless or drunk driving - 1,587,000
Dangerous driving, including drugs and alcohol, disqualified driving, using a mobile phone, etc. This category has thankfully seen a reduction in numbers of around 9% every year.
Vehicle test and condition offences - 626,000
Defective vehicle parts and vehicle test offences.
Speeding is by far the most common contravention of UK road law, with more than triple the number of offences reported than the next most common group of offences, and almost double the number of all of the other offences on the list combined.
The troubling quantity of and increase in speeding offences on UK roads indicates a deeply ingrained habit of speeding. Reducing speeding involves tackling a complex problem – speeding happens for a variety of reasons, for example:
- Drivers matching the speed of other road users who are speeding (particularly on motorways)
- Feeling pressured by other drivers
- Drivers having insufficient awareness of their own speed
- Some drivers even report that they feel the speed limits are inappropriate (particularly in 20mph zones)
A major component of reducing speeding as well as other contraventions of driving law is informing drivers of the negative consequences of these actions. This is why speed awareness courses are more effective than penalty points at reducing speeding. If drivers are more informed about the dangers, costs, penalties and non existent benefits of driving offences, the likelihood in their reoffending is significantly reduced. This is where an e-learning platform can be a hugely beneficial and cost effective asset to fleets.
CHOICES is IAM RoadSmart’s e-learning and risk management portal. Designed to be implemented across dispersed workforces and effortlessly integrated into your operations, CHOICES educates, checks licences, monitors your drivers’ competencies, and flags any that are deemed a risk for additional training.
Platforms like CHOICES can transform large groups of drivers on a macro scale; reducing risk of dangerous or illegal driving and making our roads safer.
