Small business owners who are responsible for staff driving for work purposes have been warned to take every possible precaution to guarantee their safety.
According to driver training organisation the TTC Group, every year there are 3,000 road deaths and approximately one-third of these are work-related. The Association of Industrial Road Safety Officers (AIRSO) estimates there are 200 road deaths and serious injuries every week.
If the death of an employee results in a small business being taken to court, employers must prove that they have taken reasonably practicable steps to control health and safety risks, warns lawyer Michael Appleby.
With an increase in corporate manslaughter investigations, the management chain would typically be "interrogated" to find the root causes for a work-related death, he said.
Speaking at a conference on road safety, Graham Wynn, director of the TTC Group, said there had been a rise in the number of employees driving with alcohol or drugs in their system. There had been a six-fold increase in the number of people killed on the road with drug in their system in recent years, he added.
Ian Brooks, FORS manager for Transport for London, spoke about corporate accountability and reported the comments of one fleet manager: "If the police went into every company with a fleet and investigated them in the same way I was, 99% would be ripped to shreds. It was a harrowing experience and one I would not want repeated."
AIRSO recommends small business owners take the following steps to safeguard themselves from the risk of prosecution:
- Assess competency of their drivers
- Ensure drivers are fit and healthy and vehicles are fit for purpose.
- Journeys must be planned and work schedules realistic, with enough time allocated for business trips
- Be aware of the risk of fatigue
- Write a detailed policy which is workable, monitored and reviewed.
- Have a mobile phone policy
