VEHICLE & FLEET SAFETY
DUTY OF CARE: NO GREY AREA
Lex Autolease’s Principal Consultant, Chris Chandler, takes a look at the risks businesses face with employees using privately-owned vehicles for work and what can be done to mitigate them.
In the UK, more than 14 million employees use their own, private vehicles for work travel with almost a third depending on their cars heavily for job-related activities such as commuting, visiting customers and transporting materials. With this in mind, these ‘grey fleet’ drivers are a massive consideration for businesses that could face fines or even prosecution if vehicles driven by staff don’t comply with legislation and their operation does not meet Health and Safety/Duty of Care requirements. This is particularly poignant considering that, according to figures from the Department of Transport, 25 -30% of road deaths involve a driver on a work journey.
During the summer we conducted a survey of over 1,000 drivers and 300 businesses to find out how prepared businesses are. The research uncovered a worrying knowledge gap concerning how companies manage their grey fleets, with many business decision-makers unaware of their legal responsibilities or the risks attached to staff using their own cars for work. We found that 40% were not fully aware that Duty of Care obligations extend to employees using privately-owned vehicles, not just those owned, leased or rented by the organisation.
In addition to this, we discovered that grey fleet drivers are more likely to commit a driving offence. According
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to the findings, they are more likely to drive without correct insurance or valid MOT, or while knowing the vehicle needs servicing. So not only does an organisation’s legal responsibility extend to the grey fleet, these drivers are statistically more likely to cause a problem.
“GREY FLEET DRIVERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO COMMIT A DRIVING OFFENCE.”
It may seem that providing a cash allowance and letting the employees provide their own vehicle is a quick and easy way to obtain business mobility, but this is far from the truth. The legislation and Duty of Care responsibilities of the company are the same whether the vehicle is provided by the business or the individual, with the key point being the company owes the employee a Duty of Care while driving for work purposes.
www.lexautolease.co.uk
IMPLEMENTING A SIMPLE
GREY FLEET POLICY Firstly, it’s important to make drivers aware of their responsibilities. Vehicles need to be fit for purpose, roadworthy, legal and insured for business purposes. Creating a ‘Driving at Work’ handbook, which provides a clear driving-for-work policy as well as a checklist of requirements to be signed off by senior management, is an excellent first step to achieving this. A policy document on its own is not enough; a monitoring process will also be needed to ensure and demonstrate ongoing compliance.
The older a car is, the more maintenance and care is needed to ensure its roadworthiness, so setting a maximum age limit for vehicles should be a priority. This will help reduce the risks posed by ageing vehicles and cut down on the man hours lost due to breakdowns.
In addition to this, businesses should also establish mileage limits. An older, high-mileage vehicle is likely to be less reliable, possess fewer safety feature technologies and produce higher tailpipe emissions. For longer, ad hoc journeys, businesses should insist that employees use rental cars and public transport or, if the employee carries out significant annual business miles (for example over 8-10,000 miles) look at providing company vehicles for them.
Finally, organisations should have clearly defined and robust policies and if staff don’t comply with the rules there should be clear actions that follow. Ultimately, it is for individual organisations to decide what is appropriate, but introducing some or all of these measures will help to stave off the risks posed by the grey fleet.
www.tomorrowshs.com
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