A recent shock study by the RAC shows almost nine out of 10 drivers admit they would not tell their employer if they received penalty points on their licence. To mitigate this risk, businesses need to ensure they have a robust licence and insurance checking process in place for all fleets.

FAILING TO MAKE CHECKS COULD LEAD TO COURT ACTION

Not making these checks can cause potential insurance problems and, in the most serious cases, result in the company ending up in court. Corporate manslaughter is not something any fleet manager wants to deal with, but it is what can happen if an employee causes a death or dies while driving and the company is judged not to have fully dispensed its duty of care to the driver.

 The difficulty for employers here is the RAC’s study found only 13% of employees said they would disclose penalty points to their employer. Part of the reason for this low figure are grey fleet drivers who are unaware of their duty to keep their employer informed and their vehicle correctly insured.

 DISHONEST INTENT?

As well as protecting the employer, a reliable licence and insurance checking system like AFIS looks after the fleet driver too. Many of those who don’t disclose penalty points will do so simply because they didn’t know they had to rather than through any dishonest intention.

While a fleet manager can make individual checks on all of the company’s drivers, but this is a lengthy process involving the government scheme. This lets an employer check a driver’s licence for points, but the scheme is voluntary for insurance companies so is by no means complete.

ROBUST SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES ENSURE DUTY OF CARE

To make sure all drivers disclose penalty points and are properly insured businesses need robust systems in place and a clear fleet policy. This means the company and its drivers know exactly what is expected of them.

Some grey fleet drivers and hire car users might think the company policy doesn’t apply to them. This is wrong and employers have a duty of care to their drivers no matter what vehicle they are driving for business use.

An employer is expected to take ‘reasonable practicable’ measures to deliver their duty of care.

However, there is no hard and fast definition of how this should be achieved, so it’s down to each business to assess the relevant risks and manage them.

AFIS is intended to give you maximum impact for minimum effort, see more at www.astutefleet.com

Astute Motoring Limited has been recognised as one of the companies to watch in the 2015 business car manager awards. Instead of looking at google ranking or advertising budgets they have relied on service and value as their main factors for growth. Simon Booth, the Managing Director, commented on recieving the award: “Offering all types of funding and vehicle types is paramount to our growth because not all companies are the same, businesses are facing many challenges at the moment so we need to work alongside them to make sure they get things right and not just try and sell them any vehicle because we have it in stock.”