Driving for work:
the employer’s duties.

HSE’s guidance for employers is direct: health and safety law applies to work activities on the road in the same way as it does on a fixed site. HSE also calls driving for work one of the most dangerous things workers will do. An employer whose people drive for work, in company vans, pool cars or their own cars, has to manage that risk like any other. HSE splits it into three parts: the safe journey, the safe driver and the safe vehicle.

Who counts as driving for work

Anyone driving as part of their job. The operative taking the van to site and the engineer driving between calls are driving for work. So are the surveyor visiting a client and the office manager collecting parts. So is anybody using their own car for a work journey, often called the grey fleet, covered in its own article.

What the law requires

Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of their employees. Section 3 extends the duty to other people affected by the work, which on the road means every other road user. Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires a suitable and sufficient risk assessment, recorded where there are five or more employees.

Road traffic law runs alongside. It is enforced by the police and DVSA, and it covers the vehicle’s condition, the driver’s fitness and competence, and the load. HSE notes that the police lead investigations into road traffic incidents on public roads, and that HSE usually becomes involved where the police find serious management failures contributed. Where a death results from a gross breach of a duty of care, HSE points out that an organisation can be prosecuted for corporate manslaughter.

The safe journey

HSE asks employers to start by asking whether the journey is necessary at all, then to plan the ones that are:

• Route. The safest route for the type of vehicle, planned with the drivers, avoiding low bridges and other restrictions.
• Time. Journey times that allow safe driving within the speed limit, with traffic and conditions counted in. No schedule that pushes drivers to speed.
• Breaks. The Highway Code recommends a break of at least 15 minutes after every two hours of driving.
• The destination. Parking, traffic management on site, and somewhere to rest and wash.
• Weather and darkness. Work planned around seasonal conditions and periods of peak traffic where possible.

HSE also asks for a reporting system covering all work-related road incidents and near misses, and for each one to be investigated to find the underlying cause.

The safe driver

HSE expects employers to assess each driver’s competence and capability, and to make sure licences, insurance and MOTs are legal and up to date. Drivers should be trained at no cost to them, and briefed on company policy through written instructions, inductions or toolbox talks.

Three risks deserve their own line in any policy:

• Phones. It is illegal to hold and use a phone, sat nav or any device that can send or receive data while driving. The penalty is 6 points and a £200 fine. HSE adds that hands-free use still increases the likelihood of a collision, and that drivers should not pick up phones or take video calls while driving.
• Tiredness. HSE says fatigue is most likely on long, monotonous journeys, and between 2am and 6am or 2pm and 4pm. It is also likely after eating, and on the way home after long shifts.
• Hours. GOV.UK says anyone driving a van for business for more than four hours a day must follow the GB domestic drivers’ hours rules. They limit driving to 10 hours in a day.

A schedule with no room for traffic is a schedule that asks drivers to speed.

The safe vehicle

HSE’s guidance on vehicles is specific. Employers should make sure workers carry out and record daily vehicle checks, and that maintenance follows the manufacturer’s schedule. There should be procedures for reporting defects, and defects should be remedied promptly. There should be a clear policy that unsafe vehicles are not driven, vans should not be overloaded, and loads must be properly secured.

Using a vehicle in a dangerous condition is an offence under section 40A of the Road Traffic Act 1988, for the driver and for anyone who causes or permits it. HSE also reminds employers that an MOT certificate only covers basic defects and is no guarantee of safety. How the driver’s check and the office’s inspection divide the work is set out in daily vehicle checks.

What a driving at work policy covers

A policy turns the duties into rules drivers can follow. Most cover:

• Who may drive. Licence held and checked, the categories it covers, and what a driver must report, such as points or a medical condition.
• Vehicles. Daily checks, defect reporting, servicing, and the rule that an unsafe vehicle does not move.
• Own cars. Business use insurance, a valid MOT, servicing and the checks the firm asks for.
• Phones and distraction. No hand-held use, and limits on hands-free calls.
• Hours and fatigue. Breaks, maximum driving time and long journeys after a shift.
• Drink and drugs. Including prescription medicines that affect driving.
• Loads. Weight limits and how loads are secured.
• Collisions and near misses. What to do at the scene and how to report it to the firm.

After a collision causing injury or damage, section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 requires the driver to stop. They must give their details to anyone with reasonable grounds to ask, as the Highway Code also sets out. If that does not happen, the collision must be reported to the police as soon as reasonably practicable, and within 24 hours.

The records that prove it

A policy on paper proves little. The evidence is the record underneath it. That means daily checks with defects closed, office inspections, renewal dates kept in date, fines traced to the driver, and briefings signed. The free daily vehicle check sheet, vehicle inspection checklist and vehicle maintenance log cover the vehicle, and the driving for work toolbox talk covers the briefing.

This is general guidance, not legal advice.