Driving at work - privately owned vehicles

Paul,

Many companies have a policy that upgrades' all employees social domestic & pleasure insurance to cover use on business journeys.

One link that may help all (on the issue of employee driver training) is http://www.iam.org.uk/iamfleet/ - the fleet section of the Institute of Advanced Motorists.

Does the Company have to take out special insurance to protect against litigation as well as follow the protocol that Gillian Nightingale has outlined or would the protocol be enough to protect the company on its own.
Regards

Hi Chez

Sorry for the delay in replying to you.


Any vehicle used in the course of employment (explicitly authorised or merely condoned) would be subject to health and safety law. In view of this it would also be subject to the requirements placed on organisations as covered by Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007

“An organisation to which this section applies is guilty of an offence if the way
in which its activities are managed or organised—
(a) causes a person’s death, and
(b) amounts to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care owed by the
organisation to the deceased.”

In short full health and safety policy and procedures must be in place. Failure to do so could result in liability against the organisation or even a responsible manager. Minimum areas to be covered would be

• H&S Policy covering driving at work
• Specific policies re; mobile phones use etc.
• Responsibilities clearly set out
• Robust risk assessments
• Practical systems for checking
o Vehicle suitability
o Condition
o Safety equipment
Training/information of drivers
• Monitoring arrangements

These should be set out against duties under HSW 1974, MHSW 1999 and PUWER 1998.

Workplace Law produce a Driving at Work policy and management guide, which covers all these aspects. http://www.workplacelaw.net/news/display/id/10509

Duty holders would also need to be aware of obligations under Road Traffic Act & Road Vehicle (Construction & Use) Regulations. These duties would be identified by conducting robust risk assessments and reference to key guidance such as (http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg382.pdf)

In short if the driving is work related then an employer is responsible to check things out. Case law makes clear that liability can be minimised even eliminated where they can demonstrate robust policies re: driving at work in place. Avoiding the situation, turning a blind eye or tolerating employees driving unfit vehicles exposes the organisation to serious potential liability.

The following links on the Workplace law Network may be of interest:

http://www.workplacelaw.net/news/display/id/8518

http://www.workplacelaw.net/news/display/id/8299

You might also like to know that Workplace Law will shortly be producing an updated Driving at Work Special Report 2008, due to be published this November.

Gillian Nightingale
Membership Services Manager
Workplace Law Group

I work for a large pharma company and have been driving a private car for over four years now and at no stage have I been asked for proof of current insurance nor car service records even though I am in receipt of a monthly car allowance and claim a mileage allowance month on month. Reading you comments above me thinks I have a company duty to inform the HR dept. to come up to speed!

For several years now I have been writing Driving Policies for companies who use fleet vehicles and or private vehicles. I have always ensured that photocopies of Driving Licences, MOT and Insurance have been held in the personal records. These copies have to be taken annually by the Line Manager and not just presented. Every claim for mileage allowance has a declaration "That the vehicle has been maintained to manufacturers standards.".
Much opposition has occured as "It infringes my human rights.".
Howevr, under the vacarious liability the Company Directors and even line managers coud be held liable if a private driver on company business was driving illegally.
Why sue a driver who in not insured, has lost their job and has no money when you can sue to company for their failings under various Acts?
Only one serious accident has occured and the Police were interested in the Company records They checked and were happy.
As an aside when one company introduced the Policy 10% of the staff(130 staff), including one Director, had undisclosed points and several were at the 9 point level. The Company's Fleet Insurers were very unhappy and wrote a strong letter concerning points disclosure to thMe managing Director.

Speaking from personal experience, I have been asked by the HSE to provide the records we held on a private car user following a fatal RTA. Our risk management programme requires licence details, MOT, insurance, service history etc on private cars used for business so I was able to simply pass over the file, but I have no doubt that we'd have been in trouble if we hadn't run the checks.

I work on the basis that anyoe who uses their private car for our company business must firstly have authorisation to do so, and must also provide us with details of current MOT, driving licence, and insurance cover first.

We keep this info on a database and whenever their MOT etc is due for renewal we make sure they have had it done.

Amazing what emphasis they place on looking after their vehicles when they can claim 40p per mile from us!

I'm pretty sure in this litigeous age we would be liable if anything occured, so better to be safe?

Could a case be bought against a manager of company following an RTA where a worker has been found guilty of driving either an unfit vehicle or an illegal vehicle such as uninsured, taxed or MOT'd etc whilst on business using his or her own privately owned vehicle?

Worse case being a fatal accident where the worker was found guilty and the vehicle was not legal and/or roadworthy and at the time of the accident was on a work related trip that is compensated by a mileage allowance. Could the manager be called for manslaughter and/or the company for corporate manslaughter. Has there been such a case?