Vehicle Maintenance & Duty of Care

Claire Fuller
Member - 36 posts

Diarmuid,

In response to your post, Workplace Law Network spoke to an expert to find out more about vehicle maintenance and employer responsibility, and have produced a news story and briefing based on his response.

Click here to read the news story:

http://www.workplacelaw.net/news/display/id/15017

And here to read the briefing:

http://www.workplacelaw.net/news/display/id/15016

It makes for interesting reading!

Diarmuid Fahy
Member - 16 posts

Claire,

Thanks for that. David is as informative as ever.

I was curious, however, to get people's reactions to the report I highlighted. Two people died due (in part) to a defective vehicle. It was a company-provided car and the director of the company actually knew the tyres were bald before the accident.

They were found to be negligent and fined £4,000.

I know this case pre-dates the Corporate Manslaughter legislation, but I can't be the only one to think that it's a ridiculous sum.

RUSSELL HILL
Member - 34 posts

Yes this is a ridiculously small sum. With the CM law now in place fines should be much higher. Nothing has been decided but it couldbe as high as 10% of the companies turnover. However I do not believe it will be that high. We will unfortunatly have to wait and see until the first case sets a precident.

Gary Townley
Member - 6 posts

If an employer classes an employee as an essential car users, where the employee has to provide their own car, who is then accountable for the vechiles maintenace and cost of maintenace?

RUSSELL HILL
Member - 34 posts

Gary, although I'm a driver trainer not a solicitor my understanding is that you as the employer must put in place the policies to ensure that any vehicle used for work purposes is roadworthy, legal and fit for purpose. Once the policies are in place and you have communicated them to the employee it will be up to you to ensure the employee is adhereing to the rules. As for the cost of repairs I think that the employee will be responsible as they are presumably getting a mileage allowance, this allowance should be used for these repairs.

Diarmuid Fahy
Member - 16 posts

I agree with Russell on this. Any car used for business, whether a company car or private vehicle, must meet the same PUWER criteria: it must be fit for purpose, maintained properly, and the operator must be qualified/trained to use it. The policy can specify the type of vehicle that's acceptable, set out clearly the maintenance/safety check regime, and specify licence checks to ensure the employee's entitled to drive.

Once these are in place, an audit system needs to be put in place to carry out checks and demonstrate the steps taken to ensure compliance from the drivers.

Ultimately, however, responsibility for maintenance and safety checks remains with the driver, especially if they take a cash allowance. The most an employer can do is advise best practice and audit as above. The only exception would be a pool vehicle where there is no allocated driver (as per the Land Rover case) where rigorous checks by the company are essential.

Wrt maintenance on private cars, mileage and/or cash allowances are calculated to take these costs into account and it is the driver's responsibility to pay them.

D.