Recent changes to road safety legislation mean employers need to understand the extent of their responsibilities and take steps to mitigate problems

Changes to legislation  

New legislation covering occupational road risk include the following:

– A new charge of ‘causing death by careless, or inconsiderate, driving’, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

This new charges will see an increase in drivers receiving custodial sentences for causing death.   This means that a business must consider losing an employee for a period.  Do you keep the job open?  Not that simple if it can be shown that the company had a part in the cause of the death, for example by calling the employee on the phone knowing that they were driving at the time

– A new charge of ‘causing death by driving: unlicensed, disqualified or uninsured’, with a maximum penalty of two years in prison.
You may not think this involves the employer but consider if your employees tot up their points and are disqualified for 3 to 6 months, without your knowledge. They may continue to drive on your company’s behalf

You should also think about employees who drive their own vehicles on company business without being insured for business use or employees that drive company vehicles without the appropriate category on their licence

– An increased penalty for driving while using a hand-held mobile phone of £60 plus three penalty points.
Should one of your drivers be involved in a collision while talking on the mobile phone to someone in the office, the Police and the HSE might be asking some awkward questions.

But do remember that if you are stopped for driving in a poor or careless manner and the police discover that you were using a hands-free mobile phone, you can still be prosecuted for not having proper control of your vehicle - the penalty for which is the same as it is for using a hand held phone.

– Increasing the penalty points from three to six for failing to give information as to the identity of a driver.

Are family members permitted to drive company vehicles?

Duty of care  

What then, do we really mean by ‘duty of care’, ‘occupational road-risk assessments’ and ‘work-related road safety’ (WRRS)?

• a duty of care is a legal obligation imposed on an individual or organisation requiring that they exercise a reasonable standard of care while performing any acts that could foreseeably harm others
• risk assessment includes: identifying the hazards, deciding who might be harmed and how, evaluating the risks and deciding on precautions, recording the findings and implement them, and reviewing the assessment and updating if necessary. Risk assessments for any work-related driving activity should follow the same principles as risk assessments for any other work activity.

In reality what this all means is looking at the on-road operations of your organisation, and consider the safest use of vehicles, drivers, and the work that is to be carried out.

This should include the following considerations:

Vehicles:
• What is the most effective use of vehicles for the needs of the organisation: company car/lease car/cash for car/own car?
• Does it have a handbook, proper documentation, and is it regularly maintained and in date with, if applicable, MOT?
• Is it fit for purpose, fitted with load protection, and will it comply with potential load, weight, or towing limits?
• Does it have or need specialist or extra equipment and ancillaries, and are they fitted according to the manufacturers’ recommendations?

• Does it have a good safety rating?
• Have ergonomic considerations been taken into account?

Driver:
• Carry out full employee inductions.
• Check on employees driving history.
• Ensure driver fitness and health.
• Warn against effects of alcohol and drugs.
• Confirm currency of driving licence (i.e. validity/categories).
• Categorise driver risk.

• Decide if any intervention is required.

• If necessary, carry out appropriate training.
• Supply driver support services e.g. seminars/literature/on-line education.

Journey:
• Is the journey really necessary?
• Is there an alternative mode of transport?
• How long is it going to take?
• What time of the day is it likely to be?
• Has the weather been taken into consideration?
• Is the work schedule realistic?
• What are management expectations?

Management:
• Prepare an overall company policy, which should include: the use of mobile phones, drink and drugs advice, overnight procedures and breakdowns.
• Communicate the policy throughout the organisation.
• Prepare and issue a driver information handbook.
• Investigate and record collisions and, where possible, near misses

• Identify trends.
• Consider disciplinary actions.
• Source victim support and bereavement counselling.
• Prepare a disaster plan.
• Ensure the policy is reviewed regularly.

Conclusion
Before you embark on a programme of driver profiling and training that you may not necessarily need, carry out a risk assessment, prepare a work-related road safety policy, measure its effect, and then, and only then, consider any further action you feel may be necessary.

MS