There are many laws and cases applying to road risk and companies can break the law simply by failing to undertake a risk assessment. Directors are open to prosecution; in civil courts there is no limit on fines and in criminal courts there have been cases where Directors have been imprisoned. (M J Graves case).
What Acts apply to occupational Road Risk?
75% of the Health and Safety at Work Act applies to driving a vehicle on company business and other criminal laws apply too: the Road Traffic Act, the Working Time Directive, the Provision and use of Work Equipment regulations, vehicle construction and use rules and many more.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 states:
S3 (1) Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of:
(a) The risks to health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work
S10 (1) Every employer shall provide his employees with comprehensive and relevant information on: -
(a) The risks to their health and safety identified by the assessment
(b) The preventative and protective measures
What do you need to be compliant?
To be compliant you must have undertaken a comprehensive road risk assessment for both the organisation and all its employees that are known, or believe to be driving at work, either in a company vehicle or in their own vehicle.
It does not matter how trivial the journey is, e.g going to get your boss a sandwich, once it is done on behalf of the company the legislation applies.
In the event of a work-related driving death or serious accident you need to prove that you have met the minimum standards under your Duty of Care for employees and have:
| • | A current corporate risk assessment. (One that is updated annually) |
| • | A risk mitigation plan in place to address the general and specific needs uncovered by the risk assessment |
| • | An audit trail to be able to prove the actions at both corporate and employee level |
| • | Processes in place that cover employees driving their own cars on business as well as company cars. |
If you don’t have these, you carry a significant risk exposure and the Health & Safety Executive, VOSA and Police may pursue a prosecution against the organisation and any or all of its Directors, management and staff.
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