It’s a legal requirement for an employer to manage the health and safety of employees who, among many other things, drive a vehicle on the road as part of their job. The law around health and safety applies to driving as it does to health and safety at a fixed place of work. Driving for work is one of the most dangerous things employees do. This law extends to those who are independent contractors and self-employed people. The law applies to both company and grey vehicles. Grey vehicles are personal vehicles used for business.
Is Commuting considered driving for work?
Commuting to and from a place of work is generally not classified as driving for work. The exception, however, is when a journey starts from an employees home, and they travel to a work location that is not their normal place of work.
Below is a video produced by The Health & Safety Executive. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. This video outlines the steps you need to consider to make your workplace safe and compliant.
For larger businesses, their health and safety will be much broader and focus on a wide range of elements, which will vary significantly from business to business. The HSE adopts a Plan, Do, Check, Act approach to health and safety. This cements health and safety management into the fabric of an organisation as opposed to a separate entity. With regards to driving for work – this forms one part of a broader, holistic approach to health and safety. As a driver training organisation it’s something we help a wide range of companies with.
What does a Driving For Work course look like?
When a company approaches us for driver training, it’s to help them with their health and safety obligations. Typically, they will request a defensive driving course, advanced driving course, driver awareness course, or something similar in wording. While there is a wide range of words to describe such courses, it’s important to understand they are all very similar insomuch as they are designed to make safer drivers and to highlight and address any risks the driver may be displaying, and to then record the training along with the road-risk of that driver on a PDF document, which is sent to the client for each driver.
Key Points:
- All training is on-road
- We come to the driver/s anywhere in the UK
- Training is in employee’s own vehicles
- Sessions are 3.5hr a driver (one AM one PM usually)
- Documented report sent as a PDF for each driver
How are drivers assessed?
Each driver will be scored from low to high risk after training. Here is an outline of what these risks relate to:
Low Risk – The driver is considered low risk, with only a few very minor issues identified during the session,
which were highlighted.
Medium Risk – The driver is considered medium risk, with a few potentially serious issues, which were
highlighted during the session. A conscious effort must be made to practise what has been suggested during the
session to ensure they become low risk.
High Risk – The Driver is considered high risk, with a number of serious issues identified, which were
highlighted during the session. A conscious effort must be made to practise what has been suggested during the
session to ensure they become low risk. Further assessment is suggested within three months from date of report to
reassess them.
Sometimes, there is a crossover; a driver could come out as Low/Medium. This means they generally sit on the first scoring, the example here being Low, but with a few elements associated as medium risk. This is a good way to differentiate drivers and not to be overly prescriptive with classifications.
All our courses that are classified as ‘driving for work’ focused are road-based where we go out in the driver’s own car or van. During such a course we cover a wide range of things, including:
* Forward planning and observation
* Speed awareness
* Advanced cornering techniques
* How to become a safer driver on all roads
* Car or van control (gears, steering, foot controls, signals)
* Car handling dynamics and techniques
* Rules of the road
* Dealing with road rage
* Commentary driving
* Reversing and manoeuvres
* Dealing with adverse weather
* Dealing with emergency situations
* Vehicle stability and control
* Motorway driving
* Town and urban defensive driving
* Skid control theory and learning what causes skids
* Eco-safe driving (effective use of speed, gears, planning)
* Anticipation – Learning to see and not just look
* Understanding other road users and their intentions
Below is an explainer video that outlines our advanced driving courses, which several thousand companies have already used to manage their driving for work compliance.
All our driver training is delivered by DVSA (Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency) advanced/fleet driving tutors, all of whom have significant experience in delivering driver training to full licence holders, from young drivers to drivers with 40+ years of experience.
Arrange Driver Training for Your Staff
To discuss driving for work and how our advanced driving courses can help please get in touch with a member of our team.