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10 things we think you should know...

26 September 2016

Employers are legally responsible for employees who drive whilst at work. The following ‘10 Essential Elements’ are designed to help Companies meet this duty-of-care obligation.

Management Policy

1. Assign a senior manager with specific responsibility for managing driving at work.

2. Implement a Health & Safety policy which incorporates a driving at work policy.

3. Routinely undertake record and act on the findings of risk assessments dealing with all aspects of driving at work including driver safety, vehicle safety and journey planning.

4. Ensure that every incident involving any vehicle driven on behalf of the Company is recorded and that collective information is regularly analysed and action taken to reduce recurrence. Try to encourage drivers to report near misses to include in any analysis. Involve your insurance company with incident data analysis and root cause analysis.

Driver Safety

5. Provide a driver’s handbook that includes road safety guidance and sets out individual driver responsibilities, in support of the Company’s policies and procedures, e.g. What to do in the event of an incident. Ensure that all drivers have signed a declaration stating that they have read and understood the driver handbook. Also consider issuing a current Highway Code to every driver.

6. Ensure that all employees driving on behalf of the company are initially vetted, inducted and regularly assessed, to establish that they are properly licensed, competent, suitably trained and medically fit to do so.

Vehicle Safety

7. Ensure that when choosing vehicles to be used on behalf of the Company that they are entirely suitable for their intended purpose and that utmost importance is placed on safety features.

8. Ensure that all vehicles used on behalf of the Company are regularly inspected and strictly maintained using the manufacturer’s recommended service schedules (and, if applicable, in accordance with Operator licence requirements).

Journey Planning

9. Check whether a road journey is really necessary – and encourage the use of alternative modes of communication/transport where this is practical.

10. Ensure that necessary journeys are scheduled to a realistic timetable and are planned to take into account the essential need for adequate rest periods.

To ensure that managing occupational road risk is embedded into the company culture ‘buy in’ from the top is critical. However, just as important is the driver’s ‘buy in’. All employees who drive whilst on company business must be fully engaged and supported. This should include driver feedback through meetings, forums and consultations and included in their employee performance appraisals. Information share such as company incident performance should also be communicated.

To ensure that drivers are complying to company policy and current road traffic law consider introducing advanced vehicle technology such as MarshallMatics.

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