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Staying safe at the wheel

27th May 2013
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The comments to my post last week got me thinking.

We have an ethical responsibility to keep our staff safe at the wheel and make sure they don't endanger other road users while they're driving on business for us.  At the moment it's just BD who drives as part of his job, but he'll have a team soon, and we must do our best to keep all of them safe.

We're standing by supplying hands-free kits.  If we don't, then there's just too much temptation to take a quick hand-held call, which is illegal.  So BD gets to keep his hands-free kit.

But if one of us calls him and he's driving, the policy now says that he should tell the caller he's driving.  The caller should then ring off and call him back later, unless the call is itself a matter of life and death, for example to tell BD there's been an emergency in his family.

He should also try to make calls from customers or partners as quick as possible, by letting the caller know he is driving and asking if he can call them back later.

I've also heard of texting apps that will automatically send a reply if a text comes in while someone is driving.  The text says something like "I'm driving and will come back to you as soon as I can."  I've asked BD to research these and find one he can use, then tell me its name so I can put it in the policy and make sure it's loaded on to all employees' phones.

We're now making it mandatory for employees who are going to drive their own cars on business to produce a valid driving licence to be copied for our files, and to notify us if they get any points on their licences.

As far as roadworthiness goes, I have a vague memory of seeing in an HR newsletter months ago that if employees are driving on business for their employer, the employer can be held liable if the employee has an accident and the car is found not to be roadworthy.  I'm going to ask our HR experts to clarify that.

And is it going too far to put a note in the policy that employees driving on business should follow all the rules of the Highway Code?

There does seem to be a certain element here of treating employees as if they can't think for themselves or be sensible.

But at the same time, this is a very serious issue.  Our staff must be safe on the roads and so must other road users they encounter.

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By Roland195
27th May 2013 10:12

Roadworthiness

I am not sure this is a thread you want to pull. For example, if you have a policy regarding proof of servicing you are of course expecting that all your employees will dutifully turn out with their logbooks full of stamps ready for photocopying. What do you do about employees who service their vehicles themselves or have a friend do it? What do you do about employees who don't service their vehicle at all? 

There is no point having the policy if you are not seen to enforce it but in doing so you are going to cause as many problems as you solve - do the employment contracts have to be amended to support this?, are you really going to discipline an employee who services his own car to save money? are you going to pay the employees more to cover the cost of servicing at company approved facilities, what do you do about employees who use different cars depending on who's turn the school run is? ect etc

You presumably also aware of the "lost driving licence" loophole/ploy?  

 

  

 

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By jjswjjsw
27th May 2013 12:01

Motor insurance

Remember if employees are using their own vehicles on company business they will need to have "business" listed as an insured category which may cost them extra premium over the standard "social, domestic and pleasure including commuting". You should ensure you have a copy of their insurance certificate on your files as well. 

 

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