Taking safety on the road
April 22nd 2008 With HSE statistics showing 20 people are killed and 250 seriously injured each week in incidents involving work-related road use, it is little surprise that occupational road risk has been tipped as an area where the impact of the Corporate Manslaughter Act could be felt early on. Georgina Bisby investigates
HSE Guidelines state that “health and safety law applies to on-the-road work activities as to all work activities and the risks should be effectively managed within a health and safety system,” so managing road risk is nothing new. Yet who doesn’t know a business where the full extent of its road-risk policy is ensuring employees vehicles have an up-to-date MOT certificate and that they hold a valid driving licence?
Pressure has been gathering for businesses to promote a more responsible driving culture among their workforce. A report issued last October by the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) pointed towards the importance of “Moving management culture away from an alarming emphasis on quickness and towards an understanding of the car journey as work is a fundamental step in improving road safety for workers.”
“A lot of people now have to be mobile just to do their job,” Occupational Safety Adviser for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Roger Bibbings tells HSM. “The nature of a lot of this work and the growing popularity of the ‘Just-In-Time’ business philosophy puts increased pressure on drivers.”
Previous PACTS research has found there are high levels of non compliance among employees who drive for work frequently – particularly speeding by men. In fact, statistics show that company car drivers are not only more likely to have a speeding conviction; they are also more likely to be involved in crashes than other drivers. Reports have consistently shown that company car drivers and high-mileage drivers who drive for work are 50% more likely to be involved in injury accidents than other drivers.
By removing the need to identify a “controlling mind,” the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act which came into effect this month (April) makes it easier to prosecute businesses. “If anyone dies as a result of gross corporate failing, directors who do not take safety seriously enough will find themselves in the firing line. Those organisations that have not assured themselves that they have proper corporate governance of safety in place need to take action,” explains Bibbings.
“The potential knock-on effects of a conviction are huge,” he adds, “including severe damage to the reputation of the organisation in question, resulting in a loss of business and plummeting share prices.”
Any managers who have ignored or forgotten to include managing road-risk as part of their health and safety policy should be aware that police forces are also cracking down on the issue.
Among the legal prompts for acting on road-risk, RoSPA advises that police officers are able to look into workrelated factors when road crashes are investigated. And in a new scheme in London, officers from the Metropolitan Police are working with delegated powers from the Health and Safety Executive, enabling them to visit freight firms to look at their systems for managing occupational road risk.
Questions for senior staff to consider include: have they undertaken a suitable risk assessment, do they have safety procedures and training systems in place and are they managing road risk effectively?
The increased campaigning from police forces, coupled with recent changes in legislation such as increased penalties for driving while using a hand-held mobile phone, could mean it is more likely that employers will see employees end up in court and potentially losing their licences – making it in the employer’s interest to promote a more safe driving culture.
Revised guidelines from the Association of Chief Police Officers (APCO) also recommend that, in the case of a fatality or relatively serious incident, the HSE should be contacted when there is sufficient indication that failures in safety management by the employer have significantly contributed to the incident.
For anyone worried about their road risk policy – or lack of it – there’s lots of help out there. Fleet management training could be an option – there are several companies who offer training schemes in this area. Mike Anthony, whose company Fleet Management offers tailored fleet management training, says many companies come to him and simply don’t know where to start with managing road-risk, but their minds are quickly put at rest. Don’t forget there’s also lots of free resources available offering guidance (see side panel).
Managing road-risk may seem like a minefield, especially in light of the Corporate Manslaughter Act, but at the end of the day “it is the company that has done nothing and shows itself to have a complete cavalier attitude to health and safety that is most likely to be prosecuted,” says Bibbings. More articles from HSM News Desk: | 
