Posted By Jason McQueen I was hoping that someone could help me out. Im currently reviewing the company drivers/driving policy and note that there is a requirement to conduct risk assessments for driving activites. Having read the advice from Croners, it pretty much reads that it is required that every driver conducts a risk assessment before they conduct a journey anywhere. When I think about the amount of journeys that our staff make to me that is pretty much unworkable and in all reality isnt going to happen. Just wondered what other people did to meet this requirement?

Posted By Bill Parkinson Jason I have read through the literature including the Croner Occupational Road Risk folder. An assessment is not required before every journey as you can do an assessment based on average journey lengths etc. There are other factors which need to be considered such as when do they usually start their journey and on average how long are they driving for etc. Also need to be bear in mind the Working Time Regulations as this may be classed as working time and you could get close to or exceed the requirements of ensuring adequate rest periods. There is also the issue as to private vehicles being used for business purposes (so anything outside of to/from their normal place of work) as the vehicle then becomes subject to PUWER requirements. Then there is the issue of checking driving licenses and insurance for private vehicles and so on!! Can of worms and lid coming off spring to mind! I am putting a draft MORR policy together and know this is not going to go down too well but needs to be done as we had a presentation from a Principal HSE Inspector who basically spelt out what they would require even though RTAs are not reportable under RIDDOR !!

Posted By Jason McQueen Oh, and then there are the one off journeys to places.... So to me, you need to be aware of every journey that every driver makes and risk assess accordingly. The same route at different times of the day could present different issues etc. I suppose if the same route was used, in the same car, with the same driver and at the same time of day then one risk assesment for this would suffice but given the amount of variables in the equation how realistic is that? I dont know, maybe I've just been out in the sun too long.

Posted By Jason McQueen Whilst I agree with you Terry that would be the logical interpretation, we all know logic and reality often part ways at an early age in this world. Concern with that interpretation would be that in the even of an accident, you could just imagine someone (insurers, police etc) wanting to see the risk assessment conducted for that specific journey to take into account traffic black spots, peak traffic time etc etc. But, I think the only way this is realistically feasible is just to generalise with the assessment and ensure you have specific information to back it up i.e. maintenance records for each vehicle, copies of driving licences to prove they are legally able to drive etc.