I've had jobs where I've had to drive my own car for the last few decades and whilst I've ocasionally been asked to provide a copy of my driving licence for company records I've never been asked for MOT or servicing records.

I think if I was, unless I was starting a new job where these requirements had been made clear at interview (in which case I'd have doubts about taking the job) my response would be to withdraw the use of my vehicle for company use and request they supply a vehicle.

I tend to drive older vehicles and service them myself.

As for a company tracking my own personal vehicle - well my response to that would not be appropriate to type here!!!!

Edited by user 26 July 2019 07:56:54(UTC)  | Reason: spelling

I would never have a tracker (from work) installed in my car. another option would be a personal tracker which the employee uses while working, but I would assume this would also cause concerns.

While the company does have responsibility to employees, it is the drivers responsibility to ensure that the car is fit for use, taxed, correctly insured etc.

Originally Posted by: spud

I mean if as it seems to intimate you should apply what you already do with your own company vehicles and you do track your own company vehicles then you would have surmised the same would apply.

Alan

Well, if youhave a mix of people driving company vehicles and people driving their own vehicles on company business you have to look at why these people are treated differently. Possibly you have sales people constantly travelling around all day who are provided company vehicles and some office staff who occasionally use their own vehicles to pop to the stationary store to pick up more paper for the copier. In this case I'd just have a policy stating people using their own vehicles for company business should ensure they are adequately insured for this purpose.

I've had jobs where I've been paid a car allowance to provide my own car and used it a lot travelling around client sites. In this case it seems reasonable to be a bit more intrusive and perhaps collect more information on servicing and maintenance and maybe tracking. In my instance nothing was specified beyond the amount I was paid in allowance and the fact I had to supply a car. I was challenged on the car I used a few times (mainly classics in various stages of restoration) however my position was since the vehicles were legal and reliable and had not caused me to miss or be late to any appointment and no expectations had been set as to the type and age of car the company had no cause to complain.

Originally Posted by: spud

Thanks for all feedback so far chaps, funnily enough I have never worked for a company that didnt track my (Company) Vehicle. It does also make you wonder how this all stands with GDPR these days in fact i am sure i recently heard where you can ask to have the tracker turned off in NONE company time, has anyone heard anythng about that ?

BTW the own car I am referring too would be used for travelling to sites regularly every week etc.

Alan

Not sure on GDPR, Our insurance company has stated that our company vehicles which are keyless must have a tracker installed.

Some have commented about insurance companies will give business use add on for free, which some do and I have done. However, I recently renewed my breakdown cover for my car, personal cover. Something caught my eye on a glossy insert that came with it and I looked in the cover handbook for clarification.

It said you had no cover if the vehicle was used for company business, even if the vehicle was not at the time being used on company business! I would assume if you have the free business cover on your insurance you would have difficulty saying the vehicle is never used for business use! So, would never be actually covered. They would find out as it also said they may try and claim back recovery from your motor insurer!

I think I am reading this clause correctly, but you may want to go and have a look at your own cover.  I’m with one of the main providers and had not been aware of this clause previously ( never really looked to be honest). This could affect these people who  use their own vehicle in your organisations that may be unaware.

Chris

What we do is have a 'driver approval' process before anyone is permitted to drive for business in either their own vehicle of a company vehicle, then a separate 'own vehicle approval' for people that want to drive their own vehicle.

The own vehicle process starts with a signed form which has:

identifies the vehicle (type, registration number (or other identifying mark));

a declaration to sign that the vehicle is roadworthy and complies with all relevant statutory requirements in the relevant jurisdiction;

a declaration to sign that the member of staff will maintain the vehicle used for work purposes in a roadworthy state and in compliance with the requirements of statute and the company policy procedures and guidance;

a declaration to sign that the member of staff is aware that that the company does not provide any insurance cover for their vehicle and that they are responsible for ensuring appropriate insurance is in force for all journeys; and

a requirement to produce a valid insurance document that demonstrates insurance for business purposes.

The form is counter-signed by a director (who can note any restrictions / limitations) and then squirrelled away by HR in their secret personnel documents store.

The timesheet / expenses claim system then has a self declaration that the member of staff is aware of the current company requirements on driver and own vehicles and continues to comply with them.  It won’t let you claim mileage expenses unless you’ve ticked the declaration within the previous year.  Our procedure says you need to do teh declaration if you do any business driving, though I'm not sure how we'd detect someone that was driving tehir own car and not claiming for it.

The same process applies to cars, motorbikes and bicycles.  We don’t permit staff to drive their own goods vehicles (vans – no-one has ever asked to drive their own lorry) because of aggro with working hours and tacho rules etc.

I’ve never even contemplated requiring staff to have a tracker fitted to their own vehicles.  We only have two company vehicles (both cars – one for the MD who does a lot of travel around offices, one for our marketing director) and neither has a tracker either.  The MD and marketing director do the same ‘driver approval’ process, but don’t do the ‘own vehicle’ approval.  (Though teh previous MD (who was a bit of a petrol head) and had a several of cars, including some of a vintage that excludes nearly all modern ‘safety’ features, had about half a dozen approved).

Mileage expenses are only released to those on the approved driver list

To be on the list you must have submitted your licence for checking, undergo an annual eye sight check (number plate read) and in the event of a personal vehicle provided annually a copy of business use insurance and MOT (where applicable)

Whilst on business the same policy and procdures apply as if you were a company vehicle driver

Regarding the employer providing insurance this was subject to recent discussion http://forum.iosh.co.uk/posts/t128379-Company-Provided-Insurance

Tracking - not sure which company would want to spend money installing a system on grey fleet especially as the system MUST be capable of having (what would be assumed to be the majority of driving time) private use unmonitored under the Data Protection Act - their use indicates a level of miss-trust between organisation and driver, along with a desire to "optimise" human beings (no toilet break my next drop is schediled in 15 minutes)

Originally Posted by: ttxela

Originally Posted by: AcornsConsult

"trackers are trackers are trackers" Its what they do and how they are used which is the question.  Is it a passive device activiated only when the veh has been reported stolen, does it report the veh position at 3 miute /5km intervals, who has access to it and what do they then do with it, is it annonymised for stats / risk management. In a Co vehicle, is there anything wrong with it being set, for example, to ping if you go abroad without approval (geo-fencing), high excess of speed limits (25mph over 1+minute etc), can you use it to set business / private mileage, and a host of other features.  Rather like dash-cams, they record what they record, you as a driver can influence a large part of what it records for the better or, in some cases for the worst. Understanding what and how it is used will help decide if they are good, necessary or an invasion.   Communication between all parties involved will overcome many of the rumours.

All well and good for company vehicles but the OP was asking about privately owned vehicles. I'd have no issue with an employer providing me with a vehicle fitting a tracker. If however they start attempting to dictate to me what equipment I have to have fitted to my own personal vehicle they can think again!

Perhaps we might consider fitting CCTV into the houses of homeworkers to ensure they are not violating any company policies.....

Yes the OP was about grey fleet, albeit a little tangental to Co vehicles as well.  If the grey fleet owners have a dash-cam then they are running wioth a limited access tracker - the dashcam shows location amongst other things.  Would a device that allows the grey fleet to distinguish private/business miles be handy - yes quite likely.  would I ant to be able to disable it and select who gets access - yes.  I'd say its a personal matter, with some caveats as to the mileage and type of work being undertaken - the higher the risks, the more I may want to give acces to the company under my control of course..

Originally Posted by: JohnW

So you can tell your drivers that your company policy is : if they answer a mobile phone while driving it must be a SHORT call and only when safe to do so. NOT for lengthy conversations.

No, I tell our drivers that company policy is you don't use a phone while driving.  Full stop.  Not handsfree, not short calls, not only if you think it's safe, no excuses.  Don't do it.

Originally Posted by: JohnW

The laws relating to ‘interaction with a mobile device’ also apply to the use of a Sat-Nav  facility on the phone or in-built in the car, and to the use of music devices.

The law relating to mobile phones is specific to hand-held two-way communication devices.  A satnav or music device that is not a two-way communication device is not covered by the legislation that prohibits phone use (even if hand-held).  One that is built in, so not hand-held, is also not covered.  Obviously it's still covered by rules about being in control of the vehicle, but it's not covered by the mobile phone legislation.

(The legislation is http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2003/2695/contents/made - the relevant devices are "a hand-held mobile telephone" or "a [hand-held] device ... which performs an interactive communication function by transmitting and receiving data".)

You can't have two insurance policies covering one vehicle - the vehicle registered keeper needs to have insurance that covers social and domestic use plus reasonable business use, insurance companies will ask for an estimate of how many business related miles will be done per year.  It is valid to do a driving licence check and to record MOT and insurance cover, I'm not sure that service records are relevant to this use.

Originally Posted by: Hsquared14

You can't have two insurance policies covering one vehicle -

You can.  The terms simply need to make it clear which covers what.  If you have a fleet insurance, there are extensions that cover business use of grey fleet, for example.  There are then two policies covering each staff-owned vehicle.  There are also GAP policies that are separate from the main or standard policy.

https://www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com/ Highways England has useful advice for grey fleet