Insurer Interpolis sounds the alarm about online meetings from the car. If employers and employees do not make proper agreements about this, accidents are lurking.
Online meetings are something that many have become quite entwined with over the past year and a half. In such a way that it often happens while driving from the car. ‘Don’t do that,’ Interpolis warns. Because online hands-free meetings are really different from hands-free calling. The online meeting requires a lot of concentration to keep all the votes apart. That can be so difficult that you still quickly look at the phone to see who is speaking.
Interpolis fears a growing number of ‘Zoom accidents’ now that the road is almost as busy as usual and some continue to meet online instead of on location. Research by the insurer shows that half of employers expect online meetings to be here to stay. 20 percent of SMEs say that staff actually regularly log in from the car at a meeting. Interpolis is shocked by this negative side of hybrid working. “The number of damage claims is back to the level for corona, while that is not yet the case with traffic intensity. That is worrying,” says mobility specialist Yvette Melis of Interpolis in conversation with the AD. “People are huge creatures of habit. Working online as you are used to can also be taken with you in the car. That worries us enormously. Our research shows that 16 percent of people plan to meet online in the car. I’m scared of that,” said Melis.
The insurer does not yet have figures on how many accidents can be attributed to meetings behind the wheel. There is also no scientific evidence yet that ‘Zooming’ in the car is really more dangerous than hands-free calling. The phenomenon is still so new that no research has been done, reports the Foundation for Road Safety Research (SWOV). “We can’t really say how much more dangerous it is than talking to one person. Calling a group of people is cognitively much harder because you have to pay attention to who is talking. You don’t give all the attention you give to a Zoom meeting. And if you also look at the screen, you’re not looking at the traffic situation, which is really dangerous,” says behavioral researcher Sander van der Kint of SWOV.
Safe Traffic Netherlands is also shocked and urges employees and employers not to meet online while in the car. “If you just call, the chance of an accident doubles. If you read or type a message, the chance increases sixfold,” says Ingrid Wetser of VVN. “You shouldn’t think about what can happen when you approach a complicated intersection. and you are watching a presentation in the meeting. Employers should never require this from their employees.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl