Ask any HGV driver what worries them most on the road, and the answer is rarely their own vehicle. It's everyone else's.

New research from recruitment specialist Driver Hire, paints a stark picture of how professional HGV drivers (with more than 20 years of experience) see UK roads. For fleet operators, the findings are about liability as much as safety.

The numbers

The survey's headline findings are eye-opening:

• 75% of HGV drivers named motorists cutting in as their main road safety concern
• 71% flagged blind spots as a major risk
• 66% pointed to stopping distances
• 64% said the amount of space large vehicles need to manoeuvre is the most underestimated aspect of HGV driving
• Just 7% of drivers felt the public understood the profession well
• Nearly eight in ten said driving standards have worsened over the past five years. More than half described the decline as "much worse"

To simplify, they are telling us that the driving behaviour around them is worsening. Sudden, unpredictable lane changes into an HGV's path were the single biggest concern by a wide margin. And when cutting in causes a road incident, how do operators protect their drivers and business?

The impact on your liability

Your driver can do everything right and still end up in a collision that isn't their fault. Cutting in, misjudged blind spots or someone following so close that they can't react in time. If standards are falling, the odds of your fleet being involved in an incident caused by someone else's error only go up.

In an insurance claim based on testimony alone and no proof, you could end up paying even if the other party is at fault.

This is where video telematics can help. A dash-cam-backed telematics system doesn't just log speed and location; it captures and stores timestamped evidence for use in insurance disputes or court.

Your risk profile

Without footage, a liability dispute can drag on for weeks, with insurers defaulting to a 50/50 split rather than taking a risk on an unclear fault picture. That's financial loss caused by incidents your driver wasn’t at fault for.

With dash cam footage, disputed claims get resolved faster. Fault gets attributed correctly. Your claims history stays accurate. This can make all the difference when it comes to a clean risk profile and a fleet that looks (unfairly) high-risk on paper.

Additionally, with rising "crash for cash" scams, video evidence is the single most effective deterrent and defence against these claims.

Evidence, not just monitoring

Our Kinesis telematics software gives operators the footage and event data to prove what happened, protect their drivers from unfair blame, and help to keep premiums in check even as the driving environment around them becomes more difficult to predict.