With changes to legislation and nearly 1 million drivers within 3 points of losing their licence, the time to check your employees is now.
Licence Checks & Health and Safety
Summary of Health and Safety at Work Act 1973
Your Legal Responsibilities
The Health and Safety at Work Act requires you to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of all employees while at work. You also have a responsibility to ensure that others are not put at risk by your work-related driving activities. (Self-employed people have a similar responsibility to that of employers.) Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 you have a responsibility to manage health and safety effectively. You need to carry out an assessment of the risks to the health and safety of your employees, while they are at work, and to other people who may be affected by their work activities. The Regulations require you to periodically review your risk assessment so that it remains appropriate. You are required to consult with your employees and, where applicable, their health and safety representatives, on the health and safety issues covered in this guidance.
Monitoring
Do you monitor performance to ensure that your work-related road safety policy is effective? Are your employees encouraged to report all work-related road incidents without fear that punitive action will be taken against them? Do you collect sufficient information to allow you to make informed decisions about the effectiveness of existing policy and the need for changes?
Risk Assessment
Risk assessments for any work-related driving activity should follow the same principles as risk assessments for any other work activity. You should bear in mind that failure to properly manage work-related road safety is more likely to endanger other people than a failure to properly manage risks in the workplace.
- Are your schedules realistic? Do journey times take account of road types and condition, and allow for rest breaks?
- Would you expect a non-vocational driver to drive and work for longer than a professional driver? The Highway Code recommends that drivers should take a 15 minute break every two hours. Professional drivers must of course comply with drivers' hours rules.
- Does company policy put drivers under pressure and encourage them to take unnecessary risks, eg to exceed safe speeds because of agreed arrival times?
Reduce the Risk
Try to avoid situations where employees feel under pressure, e.g. avoid making unrealistic claims about delivery schedules and attendance which may encourage drivers to drive too fast for the conditions, or exceed speed limits.
Record your findings
Employers with five or more employees are required to record the significant findings of their risk assessment. You must also tell your employees about what you have done. Your risk assessment must be suitable and sufficient. You need to be able to show that:
- a proper check was made;
- you consulted those who might be affected;
- you dealt with all the obvious hazards.
Review your assessment and revise it if necessary
You will need to monitor and review your assessment to ensure that the risks to those who drive, and others, are suitably controlled. For this to be effective you need to have a system for gathering, recording and analyzing information about road incidents. You should also record details of driver and vehicle history. You may also need to review your assessment to take account of changing circumstances, e.g. the introduction of new routes, new equipment or a change in vehicle specification. Such a review should seek the views of employees and safety representatives where appointed. It is good practice to review your assessment from time to time to ensure that precautions are still controlling the risks effectively.
Evaluating the Risks - Driver Competency
Are you satisfied that your drivers are competent and capable of doing their work in a way that is safe for them and other people?
- Does the job require anything more than a current driving licence, valid for the type of vehicle to be driven?
- Do your recruitment procedures include appropriate pre-appointment checks, e.g. do you always take up references?
- Do you check the validity of the driving licence on recruitment and periodically thereafter?
- Do you specifically check the validity of any LGV/PSV driving entitlements as part of your recruitment procedures and periodically thereafter? Such entitlements may not have been restored after a period of disqualification.