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Who are your drivers?
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As an employer, you are responsible for the welfare of your staff while
at work. According to the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, ‘at work’
includes when they are driving during the course of your employment.
So, you have a
duty of care
towards:
− professional drivers, whether full- or part-time
− anyone driving a company car or other vehicle
− anyone, employee or otherwise, driving any vehicle
in furtherance of your business
It makes no difference whether you own or lease vehicles, or have
a
‘grey’ fleet
of employees and others using their own vehicles.
You are responsible for the drivers while they are driving on your behalf.
This does not include everyday commuting to their usual workplace, but
covers almost everything else:
− one-off journeys to meetings, events, conferences etc.
− casual deliveries or calls made on the way to the usual workplace
− visits to sites other than the employee’s usual workplace
Staff are as much ‘at work’ when driving for you as while in the workplace,
so you have a corresponding responsibility for their actions and duty of care
towards third parties.
Action point:
Anybody likely to drive on your behalf must be issued with
a written policy on work-related road safety. You have to
protect them – and the business and third parties – by
ensuring that you communicate policies relating to such
issues as driver fatigue, time pressure, mobile phone use
and other distractions.
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Best practice in fleet management - Issue 01
1 3,4,5,6