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Driver Safety Self-Assessment

Driver Safety Self-Assessment

Section 1: Your Organisation

This section assesses your organisation's understanding of work-related road risk and your policies and procedures.

1. Are all owners, directors, and managers aware of their legal obligations to manage work-related road risk?
Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, organisations with 5+ employees must conduct a written risk assessment of all business activities, including driving at work, and to put in place procedures to minimise those risks.
2. Does your business have a comprehensive 'Driving at Work' road safety policy that addresses all known risks?
Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, organisations with 5+ employees are required to conduct a written risk assessment of all business activities, including driving at work, and to put in place procedures to minimise those risks.
3. Is a named Director responsible for managing this policy?
A Director must have personal responsibility for the policy, ensuring it's comprehensive, up-to-date, communicated, and followed by all staff.
4. Is the management of work-related road risk written into their job description?
The role should be clearly defined in the Director's job description.
5. Has your policy been directly communicated and explained to all relevant personnel?
The policy must be effectively communicated to all staff, including drivers and those who communicate with them.
6. Has the policy been reviewed within the last three years?
The driving for work policy needs to be reviewed and amended as often as is necessary – ideally this would be annually – and the latest version needs to be signed and dated by the director responsible.
7. Is your Driving for Work policy featured as part of your staff induction programme?
To improve work-related road safety culture in the business, you need to ensure that the policies are being followed by all staff as much as possible.
8. Is there clear demonstration of top-level commitment to the management of work-related road risk within your company?
Your policy should have a statement from the MD or CEO explaining why this is such an important policy and that it is essential that it is followed by employees at all levels of the business.
9. Do you have an adequate system in place to record all fleet activity, thereby building a robust audit trail that could be referred to in the event of an investigation?
All the actions taken as part of your driving at work policy need to be recorded so that, should one of your drivers be involved in a serious collision, you can prove to the police that you were managing the risk properly.
10. Is data from this system reported to the board on a regular basis to maintain focus and awareness?
Question 3 requires that a named director is responsible for managing work-related road safety and so it follows that this subject must be on the agenda at regular board meetings, and any issues and challenges raised and discussed.
11. Are any negative trends or incidents investigated and acted upon?
In order to reduce the incidences and costs of collisions, it is necessary to record the relevant information in order to identify where interventions need to be made.
12. Do you have a resilience/business continuity procedure for if your road risk manager is away from the business, and succession planning in place for if they leave?
While the company must have a named person in charge of managing work-related road safety, and any driving for work policies, it would be unwise not to have a backup plan for if/when this person is ill or leaves the business.
13. Do you publish a Safe Driving or Driving for Work handbook (or similar) for drivers?
A vital part of your work-related road safety policy is effective communication to all staff.
14. Do directors and managers understand the true costs to the business from poor management of those who drive for work?
While poor driving can obviously put your drivers and other road users at risk, it can also cost your organisation huge amounts of money, but often in ways you didn’t realise, eating into your profits without you realising.
Section 2: Your Drivers

This section checks that your staff are eligible and competent to drive for work.

In order to ensure your drivers are legal and compliant, you must know who they are, keeping track of which drivers have been involved in collisions, have received licence endorsements, or have medical or eyesight issues.
At companies where vehicles may have multiple drivers, such as shift patterns where a vehicle may be in use continuously across multiple shifts, the company must be able to identify who was driving any given vehicle at a specific time - such as being involved in an incident, or where the vehicle has been linked to a motoring offence.
If you are asking someone to drive on your behalf, you will be expected to make some basic checks to see if they are eligible to do so legally and checking they have a valid licence is an essential first step.
It is absolutely essential that the employee has business insurance cover as private insurance will generally not cover them to make any journey outside their normal commute.
Drivers are required to notify the DVLA of any health issues that could affect their driving including the need to wear glasses or contact lenses, heart problems, and many others.
Car and van drivers must be able to read (with glasses or contact lenses, if necessary) a number plate made after 1st September 2001 from a distance of 20 metres.
Passing the UK driving test is not, in itself, proof that your driver is competent for the tasks you’re giving them.
A key element of any risk management strategy is the management of known risks.
You may have asked an employee to sign the safe driving policy when they joined, and provided them with a driver handbook, but you should also ensure they continually receive timely safe driving guidance such as winter driving advice, and reminders of company policy such as that on the use of mobile phones whilst driving.
Many companies incentivise drivers to remain incident free with a scheme that recognises, or even rewards, good driving records, and penalises a poor driving record.
Section 3: Your Vehicles

This section explores the standards and systems you have in place to ensure all your vehicles are safe and legal.

For cars this means regular checks of tyres, windscreen, lights and fluids.
A key element of risk management is monitoring that established procedures are being followed.
Be aware that an MOT only checks for basic defects, and does not guarantee the safety of a vehicle.
Drivers should be encouraged to formally check and report on the condition of any vehicle given to them for the first time, especially if it has been bought pre-used or transferred from another person within the company.
In a collision, serious injuries can often occur from loose items flying around the cabin.
There are 14 million privately owned vehicles in the UK that are used by their owners to make occasional work journeys for their employers (commonly called the grey fleet) and this poses a number of risks.
These systems have three distinct benefits.
Autonomous Emergency Braking ((AEB) systems have been proven to reduce rear end shunts by 38% and an AEB system (although different manufacturers give it different names) must now be fitted in order for a vehicle to get a EuroNCAP 5-star safety rating.
Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) systems have been proven to reduce rear end shunts by 38% and an AEB system (although different manufacturers give it different names) must now be fitted in order for a vehicle to get a EuroNCAP 5-star safety rating.
Dirty vehicles with discarded litter on the dashboard create a very negative impression of your business, encourage a lax attitude to driving standards, vehicle maintenance, and safety in general.
Section 4: Your Journey

This section looks at whether external pressures may affect your driver's ability to complete the journey safely.

The risk of an incident can be dramatically reduced by assessing the common journeys made by your drivers, especially if they involve regular delivery runs, frequently congested areas or known problem areas.
Drivers of goods vehicles are not permitted to drive for more than 10 hours in any working day.
Drivers can often feel under pressure if work schedules don’t allow for traffic congestion, diversions, or appointments that may overrun.
It is important that drivers don’t feel pressured into returning late at the end of a very long and tiring day, and also that you don’t allow them to do so of their own accord when excessive fatigue could put them and other road users at risk.
Drivers can easily panic when involved in a collision or after suffering a breakdown, forgetting to follow basic procedures or not having information to hand of who to call for assistance.
A driver can suffer significant confidence issues and anxiety after a serious collision that could actually increase their chances of having a further collision.
A three-hour journey on the motorway to see a client may not be the most productive use of time.
Satellite navigation systems have many benefits.
Mobile phones can cause significant distraction to a driver and research has proved that, although legal, hands-free or Bluetooth phones are still a significant distraction with drivers up to four times more likely to crash.
Your policy on the use of mobile phones should also be shared with office-based managers and admin staff who may be tempted to call colleagues, such as sales staff, whom they know to be driving.
Section 5: Towing

Do any of your drivers ever tow a trailer (loaded or unloaded) or plant behind a company vehicle or their own vehicle?

Check entitlement and any restrictions on their licence.
A full vehicle induction process should be carried out with the driver and a driver assessment and coaching programme in place to ensure the driver is fully aware of the vehicle characteristics including weight, loading, operation, rules of use, etc.
Your driving for work policy needs to cover all possible risks in driving for work and specialist vehicles often present a considerably higher risk than conventional vehicles.
Procedures need to be put in place to ensure the appropriate daily checking, servicing and maintenance of these vehicles in the same way as would be carried out for conventional commercial vehicle fleets.
Drivers must be aware of the weight limits of both the towing vehicle and what it is permitted to tow.
Section 6: Specialist Vehicles

Do any of your staff ever drive any specialist vehicles or operate under additional regulations or exemptions? This would include MEWPS, wide loads, cranes, etc or the transportation of hazardous goods.

Before allowing any employee to drive a specialist vehicle you must first ascertain that the driver in question is eligible to drive the vehicle.
A full vehicle induction process should be carried out with the driver and a driver assessment and coaching programme in place to ensure the driver is fully aware of the vehicle characteristics including weight, loading, operation, rules of use, etc.
Your driving for work policy needs to cover all possible risks in driving for work and specialist vehicles often present a considerably higher risk than conventional vehicles.
Procedures need to be put in place to ensure the appropriate daily checking, servicing and maintenance of these vehicles in the same way as would be carried out for conventional commercial vehicle fleets.
If any of your operations make use of vehicles/drivers where typical maintenance, licencing and driver training do not apply (such as Road/Rail vehicles or road-marking trucks) good practice is to treat drivers as if they were subject to the usual training and licencing requirements to ensure safety standards are still met, particularly where exemptions may allow employees to drive large commercial vehicles without having completed DCPC training.
Section 7: Motorcycles

Do any of your staff ride a motorcycle or quad bike as part of their role, either on or off road?

Check entitlement and any restrictions on their licence.
Ensure driver training and provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
Include motorcycle-specific risks in your driving for work policy.
Establish procedures for checking and maintaining motorcycles and PPE.
Section 8: Procured Transport

Do you utilise vehicles and drivers controlled by other organisations?

Verify that transport providers (and subcontractors) manage road risk to legal and best practice standards.
Ensure contractors and supply chain companies involved in driving adhere to road safety legislation and guidance.
Check that hire car and taxi providers have systems to ensure vehicle roadworthiness.
Inform employees about their responsibility to choose safe hire car/taxi providers.
Prioritise hire cars with 5-star EuroNCAP rating and Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB).
Encourage suppliers to adhere to road safety legislation and best practices.
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