Company Vehicles In The New Year

It’s that time of year again – new year resolutions! But what about resolutions in the workplace? How could you improve practices and procedures? And in particular do you have policies in place for company vehicles?

Last year several police forces stated their intention to investigate company road safety policies, with a particular focus on employers ensuring their employees are driving safely. Under the new initiative, the police investigating a road accident involving a driver at work will no longer focus on driver error alone as the cause of the accident. They will now investigate whether the employee has a valid MOT, if they are insured to use their vehicle for business use and if they have a valid driving licence.

So how does that affect you as an employer? Just think for a moment… how many of your employees use their own vehicle when at work? Do they have valid documentation? Are they are insured to use their vehicle for business purposes?

From 1 April 2008, the new Corporate Manslaughter Act makes it easier for employers to be prosecuted in situations where death is caused by negligence. As an employer, you are liable for the conduct of your employees during their working day. Therefore, if one of your employees is involved in a fatal road accident, whether it is a company or privately owned vehicle, liability may ultimately lie with your organisation.

With this in mind, why not make your new year’s resolution to introduce a policy about the use of vehicles during the working day? This gives you the opportunity to ask for relevant documentation (MOT, insurance, driving licence) from all employees, even those that use their own vehicle.

Part of your vehicle policy should include the recent ban on smoking in the workplace as the workplace also includes vehicles.

All vehicles (commercial vehicles, vans, company cars and pool cars) used at work by more than one person must be smoke free and must also display a non-smoking sticker in the windscreen. Do your company cars display these stickers?

And what about privately owned vehicles used for business purposes? You may be relieved to learn that privately owned vehicles are excluded from the smoking ban but, as always, there are exceptions to this. If the business mileage on the vehicle exceeds the personal mileage, and if the driver sometimes carries passengers on work trips, then the smoking ban will apply.

With all these possible problems, when employees use vehicles for business purposes, why not greet the new year with a new, proactive approach?

For more information or advice, please contact James Collings

Published 21/01/2008. The author of this article is James Collings