Businesses have been urged to prepare a comprehensive driver risk management plan after concerns were raised that many fleet managers don’t fully understand their duty of care to drivers. Nearly half of fleet managers recently surveyed said private vehicle usage had increased since the pandemic as people changed their work patterns compared to established practices of old, and this management of grey fleet highlighted one major reason why there was a need for fleet managers to understand their full responsibilities.
While regular driver risk policies are commonplace in most fleet management functions, they are not an accepted essential of the position, and there is concern within the fleet sector that risk management is not fully understood and particularly that there is a knowledge failing in terms of the full extent of a fleet manager’s duty of care.
Fundamentally, employers have a legal duty to provide their employees with a workplace that is safe and comfortable and for which risks have been evaluated and controlled. This duty of care is derived from legal obligations stated in the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, Road Traffic Act 1988, and the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. This duty extends to both employees and the public, and in terms of vehicles the ‘workplace’ is extended to mean the vehicle an employee is driving and hence, if an employee is driving a vehicle for business this needs to be treated in the same way as an office or any other kind of workstation.
What does a risk management policy need to include?
So for all employees and all vehicles, a fleet manager needs to prepare comprehensive records which will detail all the variables, assess the risks, recommend actions and ensure actions are implemented and reviewed. This plan should therefore include:
- Maintain all vehicles used by the business – including grey fleet – to ensure they are fit-for purpose
- Manage compliance in terms of road tax, insurance and MOTs
- Carry out risk assessments of all vehicles and individual operations
- Training – arrange regular training as needed, assess and review the training and ensure all new-starters are automatically trained upon induction
- Accident management – record all accidents (company and private vehicles), carry out additional risk assessments following accidents and implement follow-up actions
- Understand grey fleet – include a separate section devoted to fully understanding grey fleet and ensuring it is covered under all the same risk management actions as company vehicles. This should include servicing records and compliance records
- Employee audit – carry out regular medical/health check-ups on all drivers, check their right-to-workstatus, accident record and maintain licence records (validity, penalty points, disqualifications)
- Maintenance – implement checklists whereby drivers carry-out their own regular routine maintenance (checking tyres, lights, oil, wipers etc) as well as maintaining good records for regular external service and maintenance
Understanding a fleet manager’s duty of care
Concerns that fleet managers don’t understand the full extent of their duty of care, comes from the increased use of private vehicles for business, ie. grey fleet. This is a valid concern when businesses immediately have less knowledge and control over private vehicles. They will typically be older, less regularly maintained and the business may not be able to establish a full service history of the vehicle. This leaves the fleet manager vulnerable in terms of responsibility and hence they need to prioritise risk management, and if necessary bring in external expertise to help with this important procedure.
Total Motion can assist and guide your fleet management function in designing a full risk management policy and better understanding its full responsibilities. This will lead to a robust and pro-active risk policy which in turn will lead to less cost impacts on the business through accidents, compliance, downtime, driving costs and recruitment, so contact Total Motion todayand we can develop a comprehensive risk management policy for you.
