Posted By Jem
Our Driving at Work Policy requires physical annual inspection of original Drivers Licence, Insurance and MOT for employees using their own vehicles for work purposes.

This has been questioned as there is no specific ACoP and only guidance.

What are your thoughts on this?

Jem

Posted By AJM
Hi Jem,

This is something i dealt with a lot when consulting. This is all about how would you defend your case if a car crashed and lets say the driver was banned or the vehicle was defective etc.

This is obviously difficult especially when people are using their own vehicles this even applies if someone was doing the banking once a week in their vehicle or even calling out for food. If they are getting paid for the time they are using the vehicle they they would almost certaibly be classed as on company buisness.

One scenario would be, say a driver is banned and because he doesnt want to lose his job because its his livelyhood he thinks well its a million to one chance something happening, then drives in company time and kills someone, i believe the company would be implicated in the manslaughter case also if they were not dilligent in their checks.

One other thing to remember is when someone drives on company business they may have not ensured they are covered to drive on company business on their insurance. Again leaving the company liable should an incident occur. Simply put, is it reasonable and practicable to check all this documentation and obviously it is.

One last thing, dont forget guidance could also be used against you. It would also probably be viewed as all vehicles should be fit for purpose and use and you would obviously have to prove they are and how can you do this without the checks for driving licences, mot's etc.



Hope that helps.

Alan