Employers continue to be concerned about the risk and liability posed by employee use of mobile devices while driving on the job. Seven in 10 companies have adopted written policies designed to curb employee-distracted driving, but only 32% are confident current enforcement methods are effective at achieving compliance.  These are among the new findings from Aegis Mobility’s third annual survey of 547 fleet safety and risk-management professionals.

Other key findings include:

• Hands-free and zero-tolerance are the most popular policies, with 45% of existing employer policies prohibiting all use except hands-free. Another 41% prohibit all use, no exceptions, while 12% prohibit texting, emailing and browsing while driving.

• Efforts to enforce distracted driving policies remain steady with 86% of companies reporting taking some steps to enforce the policies. However, confidence is lacking in current policy enforcement. Confidence in current enforcement efforts is limited with only 32% reporting they are very confident that current methods are effective, while 60% are somewhat confident and 8% are not confident.

• Interest in policy technology continues to grow with 22% of companies planning to evaluate device-based software, device analytics or in-vehicle cameras within the next 12 months to better enforce compliance with distracted driving policies.

The survey reveals Android and iPhone devices now represent 61% of corporate-liable smartphones. BlackBerrys have decreased, but remain prominent with 30% market share and appear to have good prospects to maintain share based on consumer interest in the new BlackBerry 10 devices.

The survey also shows 27% of respondents equip employee drivers with some form of tablet computer. Of those, 73% are iPads, while 27% are Android. Eight percent of total respondents have plans to deploy tablets to employee drivers within the next 12 months.

“The year-over-year results of our survey show that fleet operators continue to recognize the serious risks associated with employee use of mobile phones while driving,” said Aegis Mobility CEO Paul Zimmerman.  “Further, the survey results show that employers lack confidence in current enforcement methods and seek technology solutions to automate compliance with mobile device use policies.”

 Download the full survey analysis here.