THE Health and Safety Executive’s “Driving at Work” guidelines give a very clear instruction about managing road risk.
Employers must take “all reasonably practicable precautions” to protect their employees while driving at work.
The road risk management guidance applies to all employers, irrespective of business size.
The guidance covers all staff that drive, or ride a motorcycle or bicycle at work.
It covers people whose main job is driving.
And those who drive or ride occasionally, or for short distances.
It makes no distinction over who provides the vehicle – private car drivers are due the exact same duty of care as those in company cars.
There is a huge amount of legislation already in place that has an impact on the use of vehicles on business.
You should be aware of the following legislation:
- The Health & Safety at Work Act; and
- The Road Traffic Act.
But there are others. Have you heard about?
- The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations; or
- The Road Death Investigation Manual.
In a nutshell: it’s every employer’s obligation to make sure that their employees are assessed, qualified and properly trained to use any work equipment: computer, milling machine, or car.
The financial benefit of road risk management
Looking at things from a more mundane perspective, risk management makes even more sense.
The average cost of a vehicle accident repair in the UK is over £1000.
Add to this the cost of off-road time (average £100 per day), increased insurance premiums, the unfortunate cost of an employee injury, and it’s not long before the financial benefits of reducing accident rates become clear. Finally, doing all we can to reduce accidents is simply the right thing to do.
- In the UK road death is the most likely way for 4- to 44-year-olds to die.
- An average nine people die on the roads every day.
- Up to 30% of these deaths involve at least one person driving on work-related business.
Irrespective of all else, everybody should be able to get home safely at the end of their working day.
Further information on road risk management
- Copies of the HSE’s Driving at Work guidelines are available from the Health and Safety Executive at www.hse.gov.uk