Posted By Adam Jackson If you are relying on people using private vehicles for work: > make sure they are insured, either on your company policy or that their own policies cover them (and if this increases their insurance costs a bit its good to pay this back to them). > maintain a log of private vehicles used for business and check annually that any vehicle over 3 years old has a current MOT certificate

Posted By Heather Aston Lizzy We're tackling this at the moment. I recommend looking at the RoSPA site which has all sorts of guidance and includes links to a report with case studies of various company's driving policies. I don't believe that you have to go to the length of inspecting the vehicles - but of course it depends on the mileage driven and the types of journey. Risk assessment is the key (as usual). You should have a driver handbook/policy, which covers things like the drivers' responsibility to maintain and check their vehicle and their respoonsibility for making sure they meet eyesight and other medical standards.

Posted By Aidan Toner Fair dues ,private cars are specifally not part of the PUWER Regs,Refer to Guidance Notes relating to 'Interpretation-Regulation 2' I believe Rodger/Dodger (Were you being mischieveous with your brief but factually correct comment as your nom de plume might suggest??)that the all important word is private.AS and when there is any form of contractual payment for the use of the vehicle such as a set allowance per annum,payment per mile etc the status 'private' switches to 'hired vehicle' hence bringing the vehicle back into the domain of work equipement similar to the straight forward 100% owned company car. I believe this linkage is already clearly established from a civil claim perspective. Leaving aside the PUWER Regs for a moment we cannot of coures forget about the good old General Duties section HASWA -2a.Provision of Plant And 2c,Systems And Or Provision of Info,Instruction,Training and SUPERVISION.Supervision being important if the Risk assessments (born out of Reg 3 Man Regs)indicate a stong supervision element required to negate expected human failings such as failure to maintain a vehicle correctly.-That reminds me,I really must get around to changing the front offside tyre on the wife's car,Tyres on my car??No ,No they are fine,company pays for them!!

Posted By J Knight It's true, private vehicles are excluded from PUWER, though a man from RoSPA told me he had seen an internal HSE memo which indicated that HSE feels that PUWER does, nonetheless, apply. On the other hand, our LAPS partner, who is of course a H&S enforcer himself says that the man from RoSPA is not to be believed on this one, and he should know I suppose. One additional point; according to a company we've been talking to about occupational road risk merely looking at licences is not enough. They suggest checking licences with DVLA as about 4% of the licences they refer on behalf of clients come back as invalid. There is a duty of care involved, and employers can be charged with aiding and abetting (though it's called something else in road traffic law) if they knowingly allow an employee to drive when they are unfit or legally unable to do so; knowingly of course has a flexible meaning here, John