Nigel Grainger brings together a related set of skills that all fleets require, to greater or lesser
degrees, but which may not have the staffing or the skills to fulfil those needs.
Bringing his wealth of experience in all areas of fleet management he offers a bespoke service through his company Fleet Risk Consultants, providing you with a cost effective fleet that complies fully with your 'duty of care' requirements.What is a fleet operator?
I regularly meet business owners and managers of organisations who do not realise that they are a ‘fleet operator’ and that this means they have certain responsibilities and obligations arising out of their use of vehicles in connection with their business. I think that this is because they perceive their vehicle usage to be too small to be considered as a fleet and therefore outside any regulations.
To clarify some of the issues and alleviate some of the confusion I thought it would be useful to highlight some of the issues surrounding the risks associated with using vehicles.
The first place to start would be the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 which obligate all providers of work equipment to ensure it is ’suitable’ for the purpose for which it is to be put to use. There is also an obligation to ensure that the person you are issuing the equipment to is qualified and/or trained to use it. These regulations do apply to vehicles and any equipment on or in them.
The Road Traffic Act 1988 is the next piece of legislation that you should be aware off as this covers most of the issues surrounding the use of vehicles on the highway. It covers offences for causing and permitting, which means that if you are using a vehicle and it commits an offence you could also be open to prosecution for causing or permitting that offence. Using a vehicle includes someone driving for your benefit, e.g. a salesman travelling to see a customer or someone from the office going to the bank to pay in money. This is regardless of who owns the vehicle.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require every employer to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of :-
(a) the risks to the health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work; and
(b) the risks to the health and safety of persons not in his employment arising out of or in connection with the conduct by him or his undertaking,
for the purpose of identifying the measures he needs to take to comply with the Regulations.
This also applies to the self employed.
The Police now specifically ask whether vehicles involved in a collision are being used for business purposes and that could lead them to paying you a visit to decide whether they should be considering a prosecution under corporate manslaughter legislation.
If you are not sure whether you comply with the latest legislation you should make a point of finding out as no knowledge is no defence in the eyes of the law.
For a FREE risk review, please contact us and we will happily give you some guidance.
Nigel Grainger
Senior Consultant