News
Road Safety - Framework to meet duty of care to employee drivers
The ten 'essential elements' of fleet safety
Fleet managers are being advised to follow "ten essential elements" of safety management in order to meet their duty of care obligation to drivers.
Norwich Union said it hoped that the framework would help businesses with staff who drive at work to achieve better road safety standards.
The 10 points cover the four main areas of fleet frisk management - management policy, driver safety, vehicle safety and journey planning.
Bill Pownall, motor risk manager at Norwich Union, recently launched the initiative at the Association of Industrial Road Safety Officers (AIRSO) road safety conference in Wales.
He said: "Failure to put into practice the necessary policies and procedures needed can have serious consequences for both the company and the driver. This document is intended as a guide to ease the risk and protect against loss or injury.”
The ten essential elements are:
Management policy
1. Assign a senior manager with specific responsibility for managing driving at work.
2. Implement a health & safety policy, which incorporates a driving at work policy.
3. Routinely record and act on the findings of risk assessments dealing with all aspects of driving at work, including driver safety, vehicle safety and journey planning.
4. Ensure that every incident involving any vehicle driven on behalf of the company is recorded, that collective information is regularly analysed, and action taken to reduce recurrence.
Driver safety
5. Provide a driver's handbook that includes road safety guidance and sets out individual driver responsibilities, in support of the company's policies and procedures, i.e. what to do in the event of an incident.
6. Ensure that all employees driving on behalf of the company are initially vetted, inducted and regularly assessed, to establish that they are properly licenced, competent, suitably trained and medically fit to do so.
Vehicle safety
7. Ensure that when choosing vehicles to be used on behalf of the company, that they are entirely suitable for their intended purpose and that utmost importance is placed on safety features.
8. Ensure that all vehicles used on behalf of the company are regularly inspected and strictly maintained using the manufacturer’s recommended service schedules (and if applicable, in accordance with operator licence requirements).
Journey planning
9. Check whether a road journey is really necessary – and encourage the use of alternative modes of communication/transport where this is practical.
10. Ensure that necessary journeys are scheduled to a realistic timetable and are planned taking into account the essential need for adequate rest periods.
Bill Pownall told us that he regularly came across instances where this framework had not been followed, and that the consequences were often tragic.
He said: "From our 2007 claims data, we are aware of several instances where failing to manage occupational road risk has resulted in serious financial and indeed human cost. For example, a passenger was left paraplegic following a collision when he was travelling in the back of a van equipped without any rear seating.
"In another case, a passenger in an otherwise ‘non-fault’ collision was killed after being hit on the head by an unsecured tool box left in the rear of the policyholder's van. This was entirely avoidable and clearly actions ought to have been taken to prevent such an incident."