Do you check your vehicles daily?

Some employers don’t know their responsibilities when asking an employee to drive for work.

Employers are under a duty of care for the health and safety of employees and others who may be affected by their work activities.

This includes driving in a work-related capacity.

Breach of this duty can result in criminal prosecution with substantial fines and serious reputational damage however there is a common misconception that there is a distinction between employer and employee-owned vehicles.

Employers have the same duty of care under health and safety law for staff who drive their own vehicles for work (often referred to as the ‘grey fleet’) as they do for employees who operate company-owned, leased, or hired vehicles.

Employers and self-employed people should have a system of routine daily checks in place to ensure that vehicles are in good working order, safe, and fit for purpose at the start of each working day or work shift.

Such daily vehicle checks are a simple and effective way to spot potentially dangerous issues or defects before vehicles are used.

If you’re struggling to think through the necessary items on such a list, The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) provides a checklist as a guide to what employers should consider when trying to reduce the risk from vehicles in the workplace.

It will not necessarily be comprehensive for all work situations however it’s a great place to start.

Such change will make your organisation more efficient and successful by helping you to:

• Keep your employees safe while at work
• Protect other road users
• Save money by reducing crashes and incidents
• Reduce business interruptions
• Avoid adverse publicity associated with crashes
• Promote smoother driving which improves fuel efficiency and reduces environmental impact

Organisations also need to ensure that they have clear and robust work-related road safety policies that include licence checks for all drivers, insurance checks for ‘grey fleet’ drivers, a mobile phone and in-car technology policy, standards of driving criteria, and a health and fitness to drive policy.

Streamline your driver management processes today; integrated risk management, document storage, and automated licence, tax, and MOT checks will help you to maintain a safe fleet.

To find out more, see the DriverCare page on the website.