Sarah

Strictly the Insurers are preared to provide the statutory minimum cover and this is set out in the relevant part of the Road Traffic Act 1972. You can get to this relatively easily, or t least a precis, if you google compulsory car insurance uk.

Thee insurers are simply saying its your call and I would get th HR to take their responsiblity. If they give yu sufficient infomation you may be able to assist with a risk assessment. Of course teir hardsship may be Diversity, ie disability etc, based in which case you will need to be aware of any relevant statutory controls/limitations to your actions. The Courthas accepted the justification now your employer needs to decide.

Bob

sarahv

have you asked what the points were put onto the licence for? You can get points for speeding, parking on zigzag lines, diving without due care and attention or insurance, as a few examples. I would certainly want to know what manner of driving causes 12 points on a licence. Was it accumulated, or for one or more significant events eg doing 100 in a 30 etc etc. The information makes a difference in your risk assessment of the person potentially using your company vehicle.

Sarahv, if you are the safety professional for your employer then you can rightly be expected to give an opinion on whether the new joiner with 12 points presents a significant road safety risk. Previous posters have indicated that you really need to know how and over what timeframe the points were accumulated before you can reach an informed opinion.

Using previous history as an indicator, together with your knowledge of what driving arrangements are required by your employer (routes, deadlines, pressure to achieve, working hours, actual vehicle etc) how likely is the person to cause or be involved in a road accident? The severity of outcome is easier to figure out.

I suggest that you limit your advice to your HR colleagues to purely safety risks and allow them to make their own judgement on the other matters. The financial risk to your employers is one for the FD or equivalent to quantify.

Good luck but be very wary of H&S being used as a scapegoat for other employment decisions.

Well with 12 points that suggests that something is wrong with her attitude to the law and probably road safety.
Before making a decision consider:

Should she cause serious injury to herself or other road users whilst in the course of her work/ driving then the police and HSE would be visiting the employer and likely a prosecution would follow unless the employer shows that it had a good safe driver policy inplace and was being followed.

The Company and or Senior Manager responsible are liable to prosecution for road accidents caused by company employees on business. Corporate Manslaughter & Corporate Homocide Act can be applied in fatal road accidents.
The company needs a good policy for "Driving on Company Business".
My initial response is to refuse the request unless she completed a suitable safe driver course and the reason for the points investigated.

Steve

I might be being a bit thick here but surely ELI would cover any injury to a member of staff and PLI for a member of the public so 3rd party car insurance would be enough to cover anything else.

Our policy governed by our insurers is anyone with six points or over has to be advised to the insurers prior to employment (including agency drivers). Once insurers are happy (dependant on what the points are for) are we able to let them drive on our insurance policy.

our insurers are advising us to re-look at all current staff and look vary strongly at potential staff & their driving licenses and if the risk assessment indicates the need then we do not recruit those with lots of points [high risk drivers] and to very strongy manage those already working with us [again high risk drivers] - obviously evaluating all the factors as noted above inclusive of human rights etc

recently we did not recruit a person that operates is in a highly dangerous occupation because of the ponts on their licence [ their job involves driving but it is not the primary occupation] as even a basic RA will show that a high risk person in one area will most likely be a high risk person in another . The occupation noted herein is very hazardous and what accidents there are are usually severe [its not construction!]. Its an employers duty to proactively lower risk and to manage so by employing/allowing an current employee to start with you/continue with you without action that is relevant you are not managing

Imagin the headlines 'employer lets employee with 12 points kill a child' or the headlines 'big brother stops a poor worker getting a job' - you cannot win either way but by undertaining the RA and acting on its findings you have managed instead of sat on the fence

This is where it would be nice [& sensible] if HR worked with H&S

Hi Sarah

I do love it when people say 'well it's all down to your risk assessment' although they're right it does, I suspect what you need are practical solutions. Incidentally you've already done an assessment of sorts, one of the risk factors that need considering is the drivers past experience (as it generally predicts their future performance) - the fact they have 12 points says a great deal.

Solutions:

Allow the person to drive - this depends whether your company are ok with accepting the risk of them totalling the car and the company having to pay for the full cost (as well as any bad PR as a consequence of an incident but you'd get that in case particularly if the vehicle is branded). Won't worry greatly about the personal injury point personally, if they are hit by someone else they claim off their insurance. If it's an own fault collision - how can they claim, it's their fault - providing the vehicle is maintained etc. Give them some on the road driver training too, ROSPA offer it for about £360 a day.

Allow the person to drive with restrictions - as above but only allow them to drive an older vehicle hence should they write it off the loss to the business is lessened, or only drive at certain times of the day or for short journey's (reducing exposure time to the hazard of driving).

Terminate employment - as awful as it sounds, if they have only just joined then they'll be on their probation ... its easier to get 'rid' during this time e.g. we can't accept the finanical or safety risk you pose - talk to HR.

Hope this helps.

Decisions on who is employed or not and what business risks are taken are at the end of day made by the manager responsible. HR and other support functions are advisory.

Once the support functions have given their advice senior management responsible have the final say
in my experience
Steve