This article highlights the importance of road safety for employees driving for work. Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, employers must ensure work vehicles are safe and compliant. It introduces a free online policy builder from Driving for Better Business to help organisations create a compliant “Driving for Work” policy.
Where health, safety and wellbeing are paramount for residents, clients and your brand reputation and business growth, they are equally important for employees, carers and staff – especially those whose role includes driving for work.
Driving for work is statistically the most dangerous activity most employees undertake. Around a third of all road traffic incidents involve someone who is driving for work at the time – accounting for some 500 fatalities and almost 40,000 injuries a year.
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 treats a vehicle driven for work as an extension of the workplace – whether it is a company provided vehicle or one that is privately-owned and used for work journeys. The employer must ensure that those driving for work are safe, legal and competent to do so, and that vehicles are safe, legal and roadworthy.
What is a work journey?
Employees and staff may not see themselves as a driver but if they drive for any part of their work, they are considered a business driver and have related responsibilities.
Driving for work is any journey carried out in relation to work (other than commuting to a usual place of work). This may include taking work colleagues or residents to appointments, travelling to meetings or simply popping to the shop or post office on behalf of work.
Employers have responsibilities to manage driving for work for which you need a legally compliant policy. So where do you start with a policy?
Ask:
- Is there a checking system in place for driver competency, licence validity and business insurance?
- Is everyone in your organisation fully aware of their individual responsibilities to manage work-related road risk?
- Do you have a comprehensive ‘Driving for Work’ policy document?
New resource: free Driving for Work Policy Builder
The risk-management experts at Driving for Better Business, the free programme from National Highways to help employers manage driver safety, have launched an online driving for work policy builder to help ensure you have a legally compliant driving for work policy.
Why companies need a driving for work policy:
- It is a legal requirement: companies must have policies and procedures to minimise risk – including the known risks around driving. In the event of a serious incident, a company must be able to produce documentary proof that the organisation has taken reasonable steps to protect drivers and other road users.
- It makes good business sense. Poorly management costs companies more. For company vehicles, this means higher insurance, increased servicing and maintenance costs, more speeding tickets and greater fuel use; and for those using their own vehicle, confidence that they know what’s expected and are safe and legal.
- It is the right thing to do so that your staff and other road users get home safe and well.
This can have a huge positive impact on how employers think about driver safety. It helps employers create, review, and update their own policy. It covers all the key risks for those who drive as part of their work and can be adapted to individual companies.
What should be included?
- A statement explaining why the policy exists and why it is important that drivers follow it.
- A section covering licence checks, medical conditions, driver competence and fitness to drive including impairment, fatigue and wellbeing.
- A vehicle section including roadworthiness, loading, security, private use of vehicles and towing, if applicable.
- A journey section including driving standards, use of mobile phones, dealing with fines and penalties, and what to do in the event of a collision or breakdown.
- There’s no ‘one policy fits all’. Users must check the policy wording and amend where necessary – for example to include transporting hazardous goods.
Getting driver buy-in
- It must be realistic, consistently applied, and reinforced regularly.
- Bring drivers in at an early stage: let them identify the risks in their journeys and how they might be avoided.
- Drivers need to see how it benefits them, that it can be easily followed, and that other things won’t interfere with their ability to comply.
- The rules apply to everyone in the business: directors as well as van drivers.
- Reinforcing the policy, reviewing compliance, and demonstrating the benefits that have been achieved, will help ensure everyone understands its importance.
Keeping it up to date
- To be legally compliant, a policy must be up to date and reviewed regularly. The policy must be owned by a director or similar senior manager who has overall responsibility for creating, communicating and reviewing it, as well as monitoring compliance.
- Driving for Better Business works closely with the Health & Safety Executive, Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, Department for Transport, TSO (which produces the Highway Code) and National Highways, and will provide updates whenever official guidance or legislation changes that affect a driver policy, plus an annual reminder to review your policy to make sure it remains current and legally compliant.
Use our free pre-written templates to create a new policy or check an existing policy.
To sign up for the new Driving for Work Policy Builder, visit
https://www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com/driving-for-work-policy-tool-sign-up-for-updates/
You can read more on the business case for reducing road risk in organisations, here https://www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com/business-benefits/
