Health and Safety at Work for Car and Van Fleet Operations

The Health and Safety at Work Act may have arrived as long ago as 1974, but it wasn’t until 2003 that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) directed its attention towards that largely forgotten workplace environment – the company car and van fleet.

Those years up to 2003 produced some bizarre anomalies in company car procurement. Changes in the personal tax system stimulated part-funding by users, so it was not unknown for exotic cars like TVRs and Ford Cosworths to arrive in the pare to be driven on business by relatively junior staff, being largely out of sight and out of mind by many employers in a period when very few employers were aware of their full responsibilities in this situation.

Unfortunateley such lack of awareness still exists in some areas.

The HSE’s Driving at Work initiative brought the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the later Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 right into the driving seat of the company car and the van fleet insurance customer.

Up to that point, the concept of the vehicle environment as being part of the traditional workplace had not largely been conceived by employers, who were now faced with a number of questions:-

• How can company car fleet employers acquire suitable driving risk assessments of individuals? Not only to assess every risk to their own employees, but also to others not in their employ?
• What protective measures can car fleet employers take to establish effective monitoring and reviews of all such measures?
• How do they provide appropriate health surveillance where necessary?
• How to provide relevant information and training to fleet employees about the risks identified by the assessment. What exactly constitutes ‘appropriate training’?
• What about relevant training for new recruits, or on a relevant change of responsibility or risk?
• And the periodical repeat of relevant training?
• What steps should be taken to take into account the capabilities of fleet employees when allocating tasks? (It has not been unknown for staff to be allocated a company car for their work, who do not in fact possess a driving licence!)
• And in all this, all training must take place during working hours.

The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 require that all employees have adequate training to operate work equipment safely. Legal responsibility for this falls into four areas:-

• A work-related road safety policy, setting out the strategy and methods by which compliance can be achieved
• Risk assessment for individual drivers possessing different levels of experience and exposure. (The HSE believes the mere possession of a driving licence is NOT evidence of competency when driving for work)
• Appropriate training, which can range from e-learning to hands-on driver awareness training
• Records. The employer must be able to prove the steps the business has taken to ensure the safety of its employees while driving on business.

Negligence and duty of care

Just as a vicarious liability can fall upon the employer in the traditional workplace for any negligence or lack of duty of care, so a vehicle being driven on the road on company business can similarly involve the employer.

There is the possibility of Magistrate Court fines for companies up to £20,000 and up to £5,000 and up to six months’ imprisonment for directors and employees. If the case goes to the Crown Court the company fine becomes unlimited, as does that the directors or employees who also face the possibility of up to two years imprisonment.

Wider responsibilities arrived with the Road Safety Act 2006 which introduced the following changes:-

• The penalty for using a hand-held mobile phone while driving is now endorsable and has a higher fine.
• The new offence was created causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving.
• The newly created offence of ’cause or permit’ may reflect on companies.
• Drivers face a discretionary disqualification for a first offence.
• There is a new provision whereby a person convicted of a specified offence (such as careless driving, speeding, traffic sign offences or motorway offences) and may already have between 7 to 11 points on their licence may not necessarily be disqualified. If they choose, they can now pay for and successfully undertake an approved course within 10 months and get three of the points for this new offence to last for only 12 months instead of three years.

The Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007 takes matters even further via the creation of the prospect of prosecution of companies for manslaughter in the event of a breach of relevant duty of care owed by the organisation to the deceased.

Conclusion

All these changes have dramatically raised the level of threat to all business organisations, but particularly to the small and medium firms, with the suggestion that company car and van fleets will be amongst the first to be prosecuted.

There is no sign of on any such corporate manslaughter cases as yet, although despite significant reductions in the number of work related deaths, over 800 employees were killed on UK roads in 2009. This number exceeds all other work related deaths combined by three, so the odds are that a driving death will lead to prosecutions under this Act.

These changes have made risk management procedures essential as a means of protecting organisations against vehicle related losses. The old concept of relying solely on insurance indemnity is now very short-sighted. Today’s answer is the provision of a much more proactive stance working towards preventing claims from happening in the first place.

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Fleet Operators Legal Responsibility to Employees

Employers are responsible for employees who operate fleet vehicles at work. To meet this requirement that companies owe a duty of care, we list below the 10 essential elements that are designed to assist. These are:

(Management Policy)

• To elect a senior manager with the responsibility specifically to manage driving at work for fleet drivers.
• If not already implemented, a Health and Safety policy that incorporates a driving at work policy.
• Regularly undertake, act and record on all findings of risk assessments dealing with all areas of driving at work including (but not limited to) vehicle safety, journey planning and driver safety.
• Ensuring that all incidents, however trivial, involving any motorized vehicle driven or operated on behalf of the company is reported and recorded so that this data can be used to reduce recurrences.

(Driver Safety)

• To provide a road safety guidance handbook for drivers that sets out the responsibilities of drivers and the emphasis supporting the Companies procedures and policies. An example would be what to do in the event of an accident.
• To ensure that each and every employee driving on behalf of the company are individually vetted from the outset and regularly assessed to continually establish that they are properly licensed, suitably trained, competent to an acceptable level and, of course are medically fit to carry on their job.

(Vehicle Safety)

• When buying or leasing vehicles to be used on behalf of the company, ensuring that the choice of vehicle is fit for their intended purpose and with a clear emphasis that safety features are a priority.
• Any vehicles that are used on behalf of the company are regularly serviced and maintained according to the manufacturers servicing schedules and in accordance with any Operators Licence requirements. In addition, vehicles should be regularly checked for the those parts that wear outside of scheduled servicing such as tyres, light bulbs and chips in windscreens.

(Journey Planning)

• Ascertain whether a road journey is absolutely necessary.  Where practical, encourage the use of other modes of transport or communication. Would it be more cost effective to make a conference call?
• To ensure that each and every journey is realistically scheduled and, crucially, planned in advance to take into account for the requirement to take rest periods.

For professional advise or a quotation on all types of motor fleet insurance contact our commercial insurance department on 0844 477 9805. Fleet policies available for car, coach, bus, van and haulage vehicles for all types us businesses including commercial travelling, courier, taxi, coach, and haulage contractors.

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Motor Fleet Risk Assessment

For fleet managers there are essentially three main points to consider when assessing risks posed to their business fleet operations: In no specific order these include the fleet driver(s), the fleet vehicles and the journey these fleet motors undertake.

Fleet Drivers

For drivers that will be driving any of the company motor fleet vehicles it is essential that the fleet driver is fit, competent and also authorised to drive the fleet motors. Businesses should have in place a mechanism for strict vetting for all new fleet drivers which should also include checking of the driver licence checks. It is a requirement of the Road Traffic Act 1988 that you (the Company) are responsible for ensuring that the drivers of any vehicles you own and have motor fleet insurance are properly licensed. The actual person responsible for driver checking must also be competent so that they know what the checks entail and what to look out for.

In addition to motor fleet driver check, there should be a written policy in place which outlines the responsibilities of company fleet drivers. This information should be included within the Companies Drivers Handbook and all new drivers must be given a copy and must be verse in its contents. All driver policies and procedures should be reviewed periodically and updated as and when things change. A periodic driver assessment should also be in place to keep up to date on any new information.

 Fleet Vehicles

Managing a company motor fleet operation can at best be challenging even for small mini fleet operations with a few cars and vans this can be a painful task. The company fleet vehicles must be suitable for the intended task to ensure that the safety of the public and the drivers is not compromised in form.

The vehicle used must meet the demand of the job at hand and also it should be suitable to the driver. A typical example is; sales personnel who is over 6 foot and 6 inches tall, that drives over 25,000 miles a year as part of their job, a small town car would not be comfortable. This could potentially after a while cause long term injury to the driver.

It is the duty of the Company to make sure that all the fleet motor vehicles comply with the necessary legislations. The vehicles are inspected on a regular basis and are serviced on recommended manufacture service intervals. Any legal documents are up to date and accurate such as motor fleet insurance, MOT certificate and Road Tax licence. Simple checks such as tyre pressure, oil level and water levels can easily be checked by the drivers after an initial training. By implementing a reporting system these checks can easily be monitored to ensure that they have been carried out.

Fleet Journey

The actual journey undertaken by a company driver is also an important factor in managing the overall fleet risk assessment. Most journeys undertaken by a company fleet driver must have advance planning with various factors taken into account such as rest breaks and regulation requirements. The route should also be planned to avoid low bridges for Lorries and also check the road traffic report prior to the journey.
 
Motor Fleet Risk management is not only part of health and safety legislation, it makes good business sense too. A well run fleet can potentially save a company thousands of pounds a year with smoother business operations and a happier staff morale.

Active Insurance is one of the UK’s leading brokers with specialist knowledge in all types of fleet insurance from company car, to vans and haulage fleets. For a fleet quotation please contact our commercial department on 0844 477 9805.

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Fleet Insurance Essentials

“For fleet insurance quotes please visit our main page motor fleet insurance page. Active, offer fleet cover for commercial vehicles, company car, taxi operator and businesses based in the UK.”

A motor fleet insurance is essentially a vehicle motor policy that combines more than one vehicle under the umbrella of a single policy. There is nothing complicated in obtaining a fleet insurance quotation as the process is very similar that of a single car insurance policy. Similar set of questions apply to fleet risks as to a standard car policy.

Not all insurers offer fleet insurance, so it is important to find companies that specialise in fleet policies. This can easily be done by searching online for fleet insurance by using a search engine such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. Once you have the contact details for a few fleet insurance brokers you can then begin to contact each of the brokers with your fleet insurance requirements. Most professional insurance brokers will have access to a large panel of insurers that compete in the fleet market and will do their best in trying to get the best possible terms and price for your fleet vehicles.

For the fleet brokers to be able to provide you with a firm quote you must declare the correct answers to all the risk questions that will be presented to you. Disclosing all material facts ensures that you will get a firm quotation that will usually be valid for 30 days. You must also read the quote documentation thoroughly to make sure that the fleet insurance policy being offered meets all your demands and needs. The broker will as part of a written quotation enclose their terms of business agreement, demands and needs statement and a policy summary document. Read through all of these documents and if you are unsure or need further clarification contact the fleet insurance company and speak with a professional consultant.

Each fleet insurance brokers quote will vary in some form or way. The common things to check are policy limits, driver limitations; such as excess that applies for accidental damage, fire, theft and windscreen. Also it is common that most fleet brokers will also include some form of motor legal expenses policy that is extremely useful in recovering your policy excesses in the event of non-fault accident claims amongst other things.

Once you have taken out a fleet insurance policy, it is you duty to inform the insurer of any changes that occur regarding the fleet policy. Changes can include, location of where the vehicles are kept, additional vehicles or vehicles to be removed from the policy, accidents etc. This is a small list and in any case if you unsure as to if a change needs to informed or not the best option is to always ring the fleet insurance broker and ask. It really is that simple.

To run a fleet operation successfully a few simple fleet management protocols should be implemented. As an employer you do have a duty of care towards your employees and to your customers and other road users. The vehicles should be kept in a good working order and must be road legal. Driver training is highly recommended as well as ensuring that all drivers have a written policy as to what to do in the event of a claim. Even keeping disposal camera kits in the vehicles can be a valuable tool in assessing how a claim proceeds.

Fleet insurance policies do not follow the concept of no claims bonus as single individual car policies. With a fleet policy at the end of each year you get what is called a fleet claims experience document. This will highlight who the insurer was, average number of vehicles for that policy year, number of claims and the costs of these claims. To keep costs to a minimum any claim that does occur on your fleet must be reported to the insurer immediately as this will help to minimise the costs involved. With early notification the insurers are able to deal with the claim a lot more quickly and usually will result in lower costs to all parties involved.

Insurance for Car Fleet and Van Fleets

If you a company owner or run a business and run at least cars/vans for your business operations then you should consider looking at a commercial motor fleet insurance solution. A fleet policy will allow you to all insure all your vehicles including a mixture of car fleets and van fleets under the umbrella of a single motor policy. This obviously has many benefits and advantages than that of insuring each individual car or van on a single policy. The amount of time saved chasing renewals and obtaining individual quotes for each vehicle can alone save a lot of money in terms that the time could be better spent on running your business. Do not automatically assume that a fleet insurance is only available for large companies that operate hundreds of cars. It’s completely the opposite; a car fleet insurance policy is available for individual or business that operates three or more vehicles.

 

One of the main benefits of a company fleet insurance cover is that all the vehicles fall into a single policy. This means that only a single renewal date to remember. You can imagine the amount stress and time it would take to phone or obtain an online quotation for each individual vehicle. With a fleet insurance policy cover it is far easier to manage, add on vehicles, take off vehicles or even amend the drivers. A fleet insurance policy is suitable for almost any type of business including delivery business such as couriers, parcels, taxi or minicab firms, company car fleets, minibus or coach fleet operators, warehouse distribution or even a small corner shop with a few cars and or vans.

Great news for fleet operators is that the claims procedure is far simpler and easier to process. This means that the fleet operator will have their vehicle back on the road back quickly. Some insurers will also provide a guaranteed replacement vehicle in the event of even a fault claim. There will usually be an additional charge for this. It is important that the insurers are made aware of all claims on the fleet insurance policy as quickly as possible even if the claim was fault or non-fault. This helps to reduce the cost of the claim to escalate.

Normally a fleet insurance policy is available to businesses that operate five or more vehicles however some will also start fleet policies from as little as three vehicles. Mini fleet insurance is a great cover for owners with fewer than ten vehicles but for larger fleet operators the best option is to utilise the services of fleet insurance broker who can compare fleet insurance quotes with the whole market.

So, if you are looking for a car fleet insurance policy, a van fleet insurance policy or a mixture of both – even if the fleet consists of special type vehicles such as tippers, articulated vehicles, JCB’s and the like – it is imperative that you give us a call where we can offer and compare insurance premiums with the UK’s finest fleet insurance companies.

Active Insurance is a UK leading provider of fleet insurance solutions.

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