AccuFleet Driver Training and Road Risk Assessments - Legislation

There are several pieces of legislation, including:

Health & Safety Act

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 stipulates that employers must ‘carry out an assessment of the risks to the health and safety of their employees’. This expressly includes driving as part of work business. Employers also have a repsonsibility to make sure that members of the public are not put at risk by work related driving activities.

Included in this legislation is:

Employed and self employed people
Drivers using their own vehicle rather than a company vehicle
Journeys to meetings, training sites, even the Post Office.
Occasional drivers, as well as drivers doing 40000+ miles pa.

Corporate Manslaughter

The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 puts more responsibility onto the management of companies and organisations. In the case of a fatality caused in part by serious failures in healthand safety management, criminal prosecutions can now be brought against the corporate body.

Penalties include unlimited fines, remedial orders and even publicity orders.

Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations

These regulations refer to the need to carry out risk assessments regarding the health and safety of employees whilst at work and the general public who could be affect by your employees. Driving on work business in any vehicle is affected by this legislation as the vehicle is regarded as a place of work. It is therefore essential to assess each employee who is required to drive on company business at any time.

Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998

These regulations are designed to ensure that work equipment is suitable for its intended use, safe, inspected and properly maintained. It also requires that the employees are properly trained to use the equipment. These regulations again cover vehicles and employees required to drive as part of their job.

Some employers believe, incorrectly, that provided they comply with certain road traffic law requirements… and that the driver holds a valid licence, this is enough to ensure the safety of their employees, and others, when they are on the road. However, health and safety law applies to on-the-road work activities as to all work activities, and the risks should be effectively managed within a health and safety management system.
HSE Driving at Work

All this means that employers now have a “duty of care” regarding people driving as part of their job. Just because a delivery driver is 300 miles away, does not mean the company can forget about him or what risk he is posing to other people.