You must be prepared to answer questions such as:
� Did the driver have a valid driving licence?
� Was the driver correctly insured?
� Was the vehicle roadworthy?
� Was the driver in a fit state to drive?
� Did the employer have a driving policy in place?
� Did the employer make the driver aware of his / her own responsibilities when driving on behalf of the organisation?
If you’ re unable to answer these questions satisfactorily, and to prove that you have done your best to assess and minimise any risk associated with your grey fleet drivers, you risk facing legal action.
So, to ensure you deal with these risks appropriately you need to be certain you’ re treating your grey fleet with the same stringent measures as you have in place for your company fleet.
Starting with the fundamental basics: with penalty points / endorsements as these drivers often carry an increased level of risk.
Insurance- an employee’ s private motor insurance policy for social, domestic and pleasure use will generally only cover them to travel between their home and one main place of business, so in commandeering them to use their own vehicle on business, you have a duty to ensure they adjust their level of insurance accordingly.
If the employee doesn’ t have business motor insurance, you could be seen to be permitting them to drive without the correct level of cover in place, thus breaking the law.
Know your drivers
Recent research has shown that there are an estimated 24,000 employees driving illegally for companies in the UK.
This includes drivers who have provisional licences, those with licences that have been revoked or suspended and those who have invalidated their insurance by amassing too many penalty points.
It goes without saying that you wouldn’ t want anyone listed in the above categories driving for your business. Yet if you aren’ t checking, how would you know?
In 2003, HSE( The Health and Safety Executive) published‘ Driving at Work’, a comprehensive, common-sense guide to occupational driving, covering all key employer / employee obligations and giving invaluable guidance to companies to help them fulfil their legal duty of care.
The guide specifically asks employers:“ Do you check the validity of the driving licence on recruitment and periodically thereafter?” – thus making it clear that validating a driver upon joining the company is only the start, and that regular checking is the only way to ensure continued compliance in this area. �
Documented policies- have a written policy in place to govern work related driving, as well as a drivers’ handbook that clearly details employee responsibilities and why they are important, both for the driver, and for you as their employer.
Is the driver aware of his / her own responsibilities when driving on behalf of the organisation?
Both documents should be read, understood and accepted in writing by every staff member with driving responsibility.
Licence checking – it’ s imperative that you check the driving status of your employees, to ensure they hold a valid licence, aren’ t banned from driving, and are permitted to drive the type of vehicle they’ re assigned.
Furthermore it’ s essential to conduct regular rechecks, particularly on those
23