Are your company drivers safe?

A fellow member of the 4Networking group, John Armitage of 1-2-1 Vehicles, recently published a posting regarding safety in the UK haulage industry (http://www.4networking.biz/forum/5/71711.htm ).

In his posting John quoted comments concerning driver safety which had been made by a Nottingham based firm of lawyers, Rothera Dowson. In essence the concern was that reported attacks on heavy goods vehicles were on the increase and some drivers were having to seek medical/ psychological attention as a result of being assaulted.

Both John and the legal firm offered good advice on driver safety, but I thought I would take the opportunity to take a closer look at the whole topic of driver safety, and not just in the haulage sector. Any UK company employing a driver for any purpose, irrespective of whether the job is full- or part-time, has to meet certain health & safety criteria.

Put briefly these are:

the role of the driver has to be subjected to a risk assessment

this risk assessment must take into account all aspects of the job, from lone worker safety to vehicle maintenance to manual handling etc

once the risk assessment has been done, and the significant risks noted, the employer has to devise - and then implement - a safe system of work.

However, it is not enough just to complete a paper exercise, tick a few boxes and then leave the drivers to their own devices. A key (and often forgotten) requirement of the underpinning Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 is that the employer must provide appropriate health & safety information, instruction, training and supervision. And it is in the area of supervision that busy companies could easily fall down.

Let's look at a couple of examples where lack of supervision can lead to safety breaches which, in turn, could lead to the employer being prosecuted.

Consider a haulage driver working long distance runs who has a vehicle fitted with a sleeper cab. It is quite acceptable for him to sleep in the cab overnight (it's designed for that very purpose) but where is he supposed to park while he is taking his rest break?

A prudent risk assessment will stipulate that he parks in a secure lorry park for his rest periods, especially at night, and his delivery schedule should take that factor into account. The secure park will not be free, so the company may well give the driver a cash "float" so he can pay the parking fees.

There should be some form of accounting system in place to match parking costs with receipts, but what happens if that system is not in place, or is not enforced? The driver may be tempted to park in a lay-by off the main road and pocket the parking fees as an additional bonus.

Leaving aside the dishonesty/ disciplinary aspect of such behaviour the driver also leaves himself (or, indeed, herself) vulnerable to robbery and associated violence, which could be construed as a breach of health & safety.

Should the worst happen then the employer might face prosecution for failing to provide adequate supervision - an offence which carries a maximum penalty of a £20,000 fine at the Magistrates' Court, or an unlimited fine at the Crown Court.

A similar scenario could be applied in the case of (say) a sales representative with a national remit. The company may have a policy of paying for an overnight stay at a motel to prevent long, and therefore tiring, journeys, but what happens if that procedure is not enforced?

If the sales representative decides to ignore company policy and instead to drive a long distance home after a heavy day, and then has a serious accident caused by fatigue, will the company be held liable? The practical answer is "Probably, yes" because it may be argued that the company did not have an effective safety management system in place.

This short article cannot possibly deal with all the permutations and combinations of factors which can affect professional drivers. The above are just a couple of examples of where companies can find themselves in serious trouble if they fail to plan and then manage driver operations properly and with due regard to health & safety.

Just as a sombre footnote I should point out for UK readers that - following the House of Lords judgement in R v Chargot & others [December 2008] - the Court will assume that the employer is responsible for any accident which occurs in the workplace. It will be necessary for the employer to prove that they did all that they reasonably could to avoid the accident (which includes providing adequate supervision). Failure to prove this point will probably result in conviction and substantial fines.

Management & Safety Training Ltd

www.managementandsafety.co.uk

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http://andyfarrall.wordpress.com