A new report from the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) warns that two persistent ‘fatal four’ behaviours – mobile phone use while driving and not wearing a seatbelt – continue to pose a significant and under-detected risk on UK roads.
Both behaviours were linked to 64.9% of fatal collisions in Great Britain in 2023, yet detection levels remain low and, in many cases, employers are not doing enough to prevent them.
PACTS’ latest research highlights how technology is beginning to expose the true scale of the issue. Trials of AI-enabled roadside cameras have captured thousands of mobile phone and seatbelt offences within short deployment periods, revealing behaviours that traditional enforcement struggles to detect. Police forces involved in these trials have reported improved compliance where cameras have been used repeatedly, underlining how technology can act as an effective deterrent.
A clear compliance message for fleets
For fleets, PACTS’ findings reinforce the need for stronger internal controls around driving for work. Employers have explicit legal responsibilities to manage the risks their drivers pose, yet the report highlights that many organisations are still relying on outdated or inconsistent policies.
Telematics, in-vehicle alerts and connected systems all offer fleets valuable insight into driver behaviour. However, without a central system to capture incidents, validate licences and monitor ongoing compliance, those insights can remain disconnected and difficult to act on. If used proactively, this can allow operators to better identify recurring risks, intervene early and demonstrate that reasonable steps are being taken to manage safety.
This is where Jaama’s Key2 platform plays a practical role. Key2 allows fleets to log and manage incident reports related to mobile phone or seatbelt breaches, carry out regular licence checks, record driver safety checks and combine this information with telematics inputs to produce a clear driver risk score. This enables fleets to prioritise high-risk drivers, trigger targeted interventions and maintain a consistent audit trail of actions taken.
A modernised approach to driver compliance
PACTS’ report signals a shift in how the UK may address mobile phone and seatbelt offences in the years ahead. As detection technology becomes more sophisticated – and as enforcement expectations evolve – fleets will need to take an increasingly proactive, data-driven approach to managing high-risk behaviours.
For operators, combining technology, policy and culture is now central to meeting compliance obligations and protecting both drivers and the public. By supporting structured incident management, ongoing licence validation and driver risk scoring, systems like Key2 help fleets move from reactive reporting to proactive risk management, maintain compliance in an environment where scrutiny is only set to increase.
