Fleet Risk Consultants

Are you sure?

Did you check it?

And when was that exactly?

Can you prove that?

If you can’t answer the above questions to the satisfaction of the Police and/or the Health and Safety Executive then you may well be heading for some costly trouble.

Here in the United Kingdom you have a legal requirement to ensure that your vehicle is fit and roadworthy at all times.  The truck and bus community do these checks as a part of their daily duties, but car and van drivers seem to be a little less conscientious than these truck and bus drivers.

If you have a vehicle being driven in connection with your business and it is involved in a collision and defects you should have known about are found to have contributed to that collision you could find yourself being prosecuted under various pieces of legislation which may include  the Corporate Manslaughter Legislation.

If you want to check whether you could be heading for this type of avoidable problem and how to put some procedures in place to fix this issue, please contact the team at Fleet Risk Consultants for advice.

Nigel Grainger

Senior Consultant

Fleet Risk Consultants.

The Corporate Manslaughter Legislation will also have an effect on the farming community, especially those larger farming businesses who employ a large number of staff.  These farming businesses should be ensuring that they have the correct systems in place to ensure that their employees and the general public are protected from harm.

We are in the ploughing season now in advance of the new planting season.  Tractors generate an interesting set of challenges for Risk Management Professionals, as they operate at a number of different speeds with a huge number of different appliances fitted and some farmers appear think they are exempt from most of the Road Traffic Legislation.

As we can see from this article in the Hereford Times, the Police and coroners are taking a particular interest in farming traffic, especially if an collision has occurred.  To put the article in context, if the tractor is over 3,500kg in weight then the trailer cannot be more than 2.55m wide and no more than 12m long.  There are some machines that the farms use, like the seed drill in the article, which creates some special measures we would need to address.

I recommend that all farm managers ensure that they are operating within all the legal requirements pertinent to their vehicles.  if you are not sure what they are I suggest you talk to a professional.

Nigel Grainger

Senior Consultant

Fleet Risk Consultants