With changes to legislation and nearly 1 million drivers within 3 points of losing their licence, the time to check your employees is now.
Driving Licence Checks and Verification Services.
Are You at Risk?
Consider this;
- Do you hold a copy of the DVLA licence of each driver under your control?
- Have there been any changes to it since the previous year?
- How many penalty points or endorsements do they hold?
- Is their driving licence registered at the correct address?
- Does their licence category allow them to drive their current vehicle?
- Have they been banned from driving in the past, or even today?
- Have you checked every driver, including those who just carry out short journeys, maybe to the Post Office?
- Consider all drivers, casual users, employees partners, sons and daughters
- What would the impact be on your business if a driver has an excessive drink and drugs problem – These effects remain days after consumption - Are you at risk?
- What are the implications to your business if you lose a driver?
- How would you cope with police intervention and potential prosecution?
- Do you understand your legal responsibilities?
- Do you conduct regular monitoring for your drivers?
- Have you carried out a risk assessment for each driver?
- How do you reduce the risk?
- How often do you review your assessments?
- Have you evaluated the risks of driver competency?
Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 due in force from 6 April 2008. The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 received Royal Assent in July and it will come into force on 6 April 2008.
It introduces a new offence, across the UK, for prosecuting companies and other organisations where there has been a gross failing, throughout the organisation, in the management of health and safety with fatal consequences.
The Act will therefore see companies and other incorporated bodies, certain unincorporated bodies including partnerships, Government departments and similar bodies facing prosecution for the new criminal offence of corporate manslaughter (corporate homicide in Scotland) where their gross negligence has lead to the death of an employee or other individual.
Corporate manslaughter is defined in the Act as when “Management Failure by Senior Managers of a Corporation, a Crown Body, a Police Force, a Partnership, Trade Union or Employer’s Association is a substantial element in gross breach of duty to take care causing the death of employees or others”.
The offence targets the liability of organisations themselves and it does not apply to individuals. However, individuals can still be charged with the common law offence of manslaughter or with health and safety offences.
Other provisions in the Act include: Senior Management is defined as those persons who play a significant role in the decision-making process about how the organisation’s activities are managed and organised. The organisation’s conduct will be assessed against a number of statutory criteria, including the extent to which it had breached relevant health and safety law, whether Senior Managers were aware of the risk that was being run and whether they had sought to profit from the breach. A court will consider the attitudes, policies and procedures and accepted practices within an organisation and take these into account when deciding whether an offence has been committed.
Penalties include an unlimited fine, remedial and publicity orders. A remedial order requires an organisation to take steps to remedy any management failure that led to death. The court can impose an order publicising the fact that the organisation has been convicted of the offence, providing details, the amount of fine imposed and the terms of any remedial order made. Existing health and safety legislation continues to apply.
Those who already comply with health and safety law have nothing to fear! The Act rectifies a key defect in the present law that means organisations can only currently be convicted of manslaughter if a single individual at the top of the company is also personally liable. Organisations should review and, if necessary, update their safety management policies and procedures to ensure they are compliant with the legislation. It is important that Directors and Senior Managers are aware of their responsibilities and receive training as appropriate.
If you not have considered this additional risk or risks associated with company vehicles before, now is the time. Research facts completed by the Department of Transport into unlicensed driving found that the time spent by unlicensed drivers on the road is significant.
Employee driver checks should an essential part of your risk assessment policy - Don’t fail in your duty of care responsibility – Ignorance is no excuse, instruct LicenceCheck to manage your employee driving license verification checks.
Statistics highlight that, not only do almost 30% of all drivers covering business mileage have points on their licence, but 65% of all corporately driven vehicles are involved in an accident every 12 months.
You are at serious risk if your drivers are on the road without a valid driving licence or are driving a company vehicle on a licence that does not reflect their individual licence eligibility. Auditing, managing, collecting, storing, recording each driver’s driving licence and endorsements status is time-consuming and is a serious concern for most employers.
The absence of regular licence check ups or driving licence verification by employers means that you fail in your Duty of Care responsibilities and, in the event of an accident or fatality involving an unlicensed driver increase the risk of Corporate Manslaughter charges.