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Hands-Off! New Research Shows Mobile Phone Legislation Connecting with Drivers

LONDON, April 5 --

The majority of company car drivers are adhering to the mobile phone legislation that went in to affect 1 December 2003, according to a new study on the Corporate Car market conducted by NOP World Automotive.

Results show that most company car drivers, 85%, have assumed a more responsible attitude towards the use of mobile phones in cars.

The study reveals that:

    - 93% of drivers entitled to a company car have a mobile phone

    - 60% of these mobile phone owners use their phone in their car

    - 80% of those drivers who previously used a hand-held phone will alter 
      their behaviour as a result of the new legislation

    - Over 85% of the in-car phone users have a hands-free installation

Company car drivers are a large contingent making up about 4 million on the road so their behaviour and attitudes have potentially widespread implications. Many are high mileage users with over 50 per cent of them covering at least 20,000 miles per annum, so at any one time there will be significant numbers of company car drivers travelling on our roads. Facing a penalty of GBP30 or up to GBP1,000 on conviction in court, drivers also risk prosecution (for failure to have proper control) even if they use a hands-free phone whilst driving. Almost all respondents were aware of the legislation and over 80% indicated they had seen or heard some form of advertising relating to the change in regulations.

Jim Farrell, Associate Director NOP World Automotive said "The results of the study show high awareness of the safety regulations with the majority suggesting they will comply with the new legislation. However it remains to be seen if drivers will become nonchalant to the hands-free requirement if offenders are not routinely prosecuted, or perhaps it will become as habitual as wearing a seat belt, time will tell. "

It's not only drivers who need to take responsibility, but employers as well. A large majority of companies play an active part in establishing policy regarding the use of a mobile phone in the car, although this is not quite universal. For those drivers that use their mobile in the car, two-thirds indicated their company had a policy with regard to its use. This tended to be higher in larger companies - almost 80% of companies with a fleet of over 100 cars had a mobile phone policy compared with 54% for companies running less than 100 cars. Nearly 80% of companies had actually alerted their drivers to the change in legislation, which was again more prominent in larger fleets.

In-car Accessories

We also questioned respondents about telematics and related accessories but the findings show that only a very small proportion of those drivers entitled to a company car, had any sort of telematics applications installed in their car.

Companies are increasingly using vehicle telematic applications to help with route planning, vehicle tracking, remote vehicle diagnostics, monitoring driving patterns, optimise fuel consumption, etc. but there are mixed views towards the value of vehicle monitoring; with just 35% of respondents indicating that they thought it would be very or quite helpful and 31% suggested it would be very or quite intrusive.

Do you have any telematics applications installed in your vehicle?

    Satellite Navigation                 11%
    Stolen vehicle identification        11%
    Vehicle tracker system                7%
    Vehicle monitoring by your company    2%

Base: All drivers entitled to a company car (1,232)

Corporate Car is an online syndicated research study conducted annually by NOP World Automotive, the core sample is in excess of 1,000 people in the UK who are entitled to a company car.

About NOP World

Bringing together some of the most renowned US and European research firms in a unified global network, NOP World is the largest business-to-business research agency in Europe and a top-ten market research power worldwide. Headquartered in New York, with offices around the world NOP World provides syndicated and custom research, focused market intelligence and consulting support to multinational companies within the automotive, consumer, media, healthcare, financial and technology industries. NOP World is a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Business Media .

About United Business Media

United Business Media (www.unitedbusinessmedia.com) is a leading provider of business-to-business media solutions. Its products and services help companies around the world meet their market information needs. In addition to NOP World, UBM's businesses include PRNewswire, the world's leading corporate news distribution service and CMP, the business-to-business, media and exhibition group operating in focused market sectors, including high-tech, healthcare, property, entertainment, jewelry and fashion in the US, UK, Asia and Europe.