Do you allow company (not customer) vehicles; cars and vans,to be washed in the company car park, using hose or pressure washer (not waterless system). Environmentally you shouldn't due to the waste being discharged to the drainage system.

But do you ?

Chris

Definitely an environmentalist question.

Discharges to surface water including potential SVHC (nonylphenols).

Not allowed at site given the only permitted discharges to surface water drains are... Surface waters I.e. rainfall and snow melt.

Why are company vehicles being washed at site? As a company car user I am expected to keep it clean but as Benefit In Kind it is assumed I will clean it as other employees do during my own time at home.

Vehicle fleets in ISO14001 establishments should have as you have considered suitable and sufficient arrangements and certainly not the car park.

Actually I sort of meant the question to be both H&S and Env. Yes it is against the law to discharge without the consent of the water authority or Environment Agency.

I have told the company I work for it is not allowed, but they like me keep seeing people do it as we drive around.

The thing that prompted this was when I noticed a rather muddy vehicle being washed with a power washer in a car park /yard with mud (and stone?) going all over the place with employees and customers giving the process a bit of a wide birth.

I was in a car driving on the other side of the road. Reporting them would have been fruitless as it would have been done and dusted before anyone got there.

This seems to go on everywhere so I thought I would put the issue to everyone.

Is this one of those laws where people tend to be "Pragmatic" about ?

PS I don't have a company car but use a pool car almost exclusively ( pick up and return to site every day, don't take home) which I pay for to go through car wash out of own pocket :0( as it is easier than claiming expenses.

I dare say not many people will own up now.

Chris42

And the company policy on liability posted in the carparks? One of the best movers for driving respect for others is if the other car park users are made aware that irresponsible behaviour damaging their cars will not be settled by company liability. Very prevalent if you are unfortunate enough to live in a council area that introduced the car parking tax for workplace spaces.

And regardless of any signage condolence of a "permitted" action makes them liable for any personal injury arising from the activity as premises controller.

Daily Wail scoop - "elf n safety" bans cleaning cars

And to complete now the droid has recharged.

Responsible premises owners have controls in place - think of the booths at commercial car washes and petrol stations.

Another angle is the professional face of the business - how does it look to prospective / existing customers? The only place I would consider such practice's professionally acceptable are dealers forecourts.

That said some activities are wholly unavoidable, and provided they do not obstruct access would be reasonable - repair / replacement of damaged windscreens or tyres to ensure vehicles are roadworthy.

When the car gets cleaned it goes through the local commercial wash at less than £5 a go its not worth the time or personal effort to do it at home plus the benefits of capture, filtration & re-use along with not adding to potential blockage in the highways drain outside my home. Excepting a truly blocked drain, when was the last time you saw a gulley cleaner routinely operating in your street?

Regarding the home or workplace to drain question depends if the employer is truly serious about its environmental impacts and discharge control - considerations typically only extend as far as the works gate, not to the employee at home even if they are in a company vehicle.

Our current commercial window cleaner uses one of those de-ionised water systems from his van (no suds or chamois and with the hose pipe extension no ladders), whereas at home....

Excuse my ignorance here. I still don't get it. There is no difference where the cars get washed - home or at work, dirty water down the drain. I could understand if the business was a car hire company, or the gas company with loads of vans being washed - yes corporate responsibility. But a few company cars being washed at work! We do it all the time, company image etc.

So.... Where is the dirt going from your windows? Water from the van (de-ionised) onto the dirty windows, washed off and into the drain!

Chris,
We used to have a mobile company visit and offer a valet service to the private cars. However our factory is right across the road from a SEPA office and it didn't take long before they put a stop to it.

We stopped this on our site and send them off to a licenced vehicle wash facility

This is what riles me intensely about so many laws that business has to comply with.
I believe HSE et al should be out there hammering these cowboys and thus create a level playing field for those companies who try to be law abiding.

Our road drainage system does not run to sewer but through an interceptor and to a soakaway, therefore washing of vehicles on site is banned as any detergents running through the interceptor will potentially form emulsions which allows oils to pass through the system thus causing us a pollution incident and breached consent limits.

We recently had an unknowing member of staff email all employees as a local valeting company were offering cheap car washes / valets on our site while people work, in principle a nice idea but I had to stop this happening for the above reasons.

sorry that should not have been posted in your quote.