How’s My Driving? - Safe Driving Blog Tips
2026 is already shaping up to be a pivotal year for road safety in the UK. Just this month, the government published its first national Road Safety Strategy in more than a decade, with ambitious targets and practical measures designed to save lives.
At the heart of the strategy: a 65% reduction in deaths and serious injuries by 2035, and 70% for children. That’s bold, and it’s a reminder that every journey, every decision behind the wheel, and every fleet policy matters.
The question now is: how does a high-level strategy translate into safer behaviour, smarter fleet management, and real-world change on our roads? Let’s take a closer look.
What’s New in the Strategy
The 2026 Road Safety Strategy isn’t just a press release. It’s structured around what international road safety experts call a Safe System approach, the idea that human error is inevitable, but deaths and serious injuries do not have to be. In practice, this means safety isn’t about blaming individuals. It’s about aligning roads, vehicles, behaviour, enforcement, and post‑crash care around shared goals.
Here are the key components worth understanding:
- • Enforcement and Accountability: The strategy goes beyond platitudes, it includes consultations on lowering drink‑drive limits (currently the highest in Europe) and exploring tools like alcohol interlock devices that prevent vehicles from starting if alcohol is detected.
There’s also talk of licensed action against drug‑driving, stiffer penalties for uninsured and unsafe vehicles, and new roadside powers to intervene sooner.
For fleets, this means proactively preparing for tougher standards and embedding compliance deep into culture and process.
- • Driver Training and Testing:
The strategy proposes consultations on minimum learning periods for new drivers, mandatory eye tests for older motorists, and even updates to motorcycle training and licensing.
This highlights a crucial point:better drivers are a product of better training and ongoing learning, not just a licence in a wallet. If fleets invest in continuous driver development, they’re aligning with where regulation is headed.
- Vehicle Safety Technology: One of the more exciting elements is the push to mandate 18 new safety technologies on new vehicles, including sensors like autonomous emergency braking (AEB) and lane‑keeping assistance, technologies that, in some countries, are already saving lives and reducing the severity of crashes.
For fleet spec teams and procurement managers, that’s a clear signal: the future of safer roads includes tech that augments human behaviour.
- • Data‑Led Insight : A new Road Safety Investigation Branch will analyse collision patterns using linked police and healthcare data to get at the root causes of collisions and target interventions more effectively.
In a world where fleets are already embracing telematics, this kind of emphasis on data and insight should feel familiar, it’s about using evidence to prevent harm before it happens.
- • Vulnerable Road Users: The strategy recognises that not all road users share the same risk. Motorcyclists, for example, represent just 1% of traffic but around 21% of road deaths. Children from deprived areas also face disproportionately higher pedestrian casualty rates.
That’s important for fleets who share roads with bikes, scooters, pedestrians, and motorcycles every day: safety isn’t just for the drivers inside the cab, it’s for everyone outside it too.
- • Work‑Related Road Safety Charter: An intriguing addition is a national standard for work‑related road safety, covering everything from HGVs and vans to cycles and e‑bikes. This could become a framework for employers to demonstrate real leadership on fleet safety in 2026.
Why This Matters...Beyond the Headlines
So why does this strategy matter for a blog audience full of fleet leaders, risk managers, and road safety advocates?
Because targets alone don’t save lives, actions do. And for 2026, there are clear takeaways:
- Behaviour still drives outcomes: Technology and enforcement are tools, but it’s driver behaviour, training, and culture that determine whether a collision happens. Fleets that focus on awareness, coaching, and feedback are already living the strategy’s principles.
- Modern fleets need modern standards: Expect pay‑offs if you’re already investing in safety tech, training, and data analytics, because regulation is converging with best practice.
- Safety is for everyone: Whether you’re transporting goods or people, planning routes, or managing work‑related journeys, the safety of all road users, not just vehicles, is core to long‑term success.
A Moment of Opportunity
Launching this strategy in the first week of 2026 wasn’t an accident. It’s a signal that road safety is moving from passive compliance to active change. We might not have all the answers yet, the consultations and implementation timelines will take years, but starting the year with a clear set of ambitions, backed by evidence and political will, feels like the right first move.
In How’s My Driving? world, safety isn’t a box to tick. It’s a culture to build, a conversation to have, and a series of small choices that compound into lives saved.
19 January 2026