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Do you have a H/Safety policy that reflects the risk of driving related activity?

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 requires you to ensure so far as is reasonably practicable the health and safety of all employees while at work. You also have a responsibility to ensure that others are not put at risk by your organisations work –related driving activities.

Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, you have a responsibility to manage health and safety effectively. You need to carry out an assessment of the risks to the health and safety of your employees while they are at work and to other people who may be affected by their work activities. The regulations require you to review your risk assessment periodically so it remains appropriate.

The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 come into force on April 6th 2008 .

This will result in organisations and companies being prosecuted in the event of death(s) caused by gross management failings. Companies who employ drivers could find themselves facing the threat of prosecution, if they are guilty of causing death by driving

The failure of manslaughter charges in many high profile cases such as the Hatfield train crash has led to this landmark change in the law.

Companies who send drivers out in vehicles that are not roadworthy or who force drivers to work beyond regulated hours are directly responsible if the driver is involved in a fatal collision. These are seen as contributory factors in road related fatalities. In the event of a fatal or serious crash involving an occupational driver the Police and a Health and Safety Executive will investigate:

Why the vehicle was at the scene?
The condition and roadworthiness of the vehicle
The physical and mental state of the driver.

Employers have a duty to ensure that the employees have a good standard of driving and their vehicle (business or personal) is properly insured for business use, has a current MOT certificate and is regularly maintained in accordance with manufacturer’s guidelines.

In the past, companies have escaped responsibility over road deaths by laying the blame with the driver. Now companies and organisations must heed the responsibility and do all they can to reduce the chance of any of its employees being involved in a fatal crash or learn to face the consequences of negligence.

We are not health and safety specialists but we can advise where you can get the advice you need.
We may be able to help with a risk assessment of your drivers! Ask

We can advise on the standard of driving we see in your drivers. Behind the wheel training can be for :

Experienced company drivers
New company drivers (on induction programmes)
Drivers with a record of points on licence
Risk taking drivers who have been reported by the public or who have had numerous insurance claims

The training must be aimed specifically rather than a “one size fits all” scenario

Your drivers may use all classes of highway or perhaps only have limited exposure to certain classes of road. We check what mix of roads your drivers regularly use

Motorway/ Dual carriageway driving
Out of town rural roads/ country lanes
Town/ City driving.

For some of your drivers the defensive driving course would be appropriate

We pay attention to safe & legal behaviour, with reduction of collisions by teaching defensive methods of driving through increased driver awareness.

With emphasis on the driver’s physical & emotional condition, recognising other driver’s behaviours, hazard recognition, collision avoidance. The driver is also involved in discussing the driving environment including road & weather conditions and sharing the road with other road users.

As we all drive ourselves back and forth to work each day we all observe other drivers who make driving errors. Some of these errors are small while others are very dangerous. Unfortunately many of these drivers aren’t even aware that they made a mistake or that they broke the law. Other drivers are just big RISK TAKERS, or just lack normal consideration for other drivers. Then there are some drivers who just have very poor DRIVING SKILLS and are unable to control their car properly in a curve or to maintain their speed and distance from other vehicles. In some cases they can’t even turn a corner legally and safely.

For your more experienced drivers we offer a three part driving course.

Part 1 consists of a classroom training programme which covers the highway code, defensive driving techniques, emergency procedures, pre-trip techniques, route planning, methods to control our emotions, space management skills and vision habits. The length of the course depends greatly on the Company’s schedule, time available and commitment and typically classes take between 2-3 ½ hrs.

Part 2 involves 1 on 1 behind the wheel training. Many companies find this to be by far the best “BANG FOR YOUR BUCK”. Keep in mind that just because an employee has a driver’s licence and they were able to drive their sports coupe into the car park, doesn’t mean they can safely drive a company vehicle.

Each driver is taken out in their company vehicle and trained to drive CORRECTLY. They will be taught how to use the techniques that they learnt in part 1. This includes learning how to adjust their mirrors, how to find the apex of a turn, proper use of clutches and brakes, while at the same time we have an opportunity to observe bad driving habits, vehicle abuses and driver’s attitude. Most managers and/or supervisors of companies have reported to us that they were astonished at how little most of their drivers knew about the proper techniques of driving, and how much each driver admitted they had learned through this programme.

Part 3 is designed to help maintain the knowledge obtained in this driver’s training programme. The first step is done through testing at the end of the behind the wheel training. It’s an oral test where questions are asked to find out how much information was retained. If the driver fails to answer some of the questions, they are provided with the answers. A written report is submitted to their supervisor on general mistakes that they made during the training and the improvements that they made.

In step two we provide quiz sheets. These quizzes consist of approximately 15 multiple choice questions, again asking questions regarding the behind the wheel training. These questions are generally administered at safety meetings, and the answers to the questions are discussed for clarification.

Our driver’s training programme is normally customized to fit the hours and scheduling of each company. Some companies choose to only use the behind the wheel training, while other companies only use the classroom training. It’s really all up to you, but we hope that you will consider T2US fleet training’s course and what it can do for you. We feel that you will find our course will not only save you money and time, but will have a carry over value for each of your employees. Consider the impact to your organisation if key member of your team was injured in a collision out of the work environment, through unsafe driving, the driver training you provide is likely to overspill into your drivers private motoring.

How many low speed collisions have your drivers been involved, for instance in the company car park?

We offer a reverse parking course that is short and simple. We cover both reversing into a parking bay and or reversing into a parking space on the road. Using a systematic method for safe manoeuvring with emphasis on eliminating blind spot hazard your drivers will park with ease and confidence.

Look out into your car park now! How many vehicles have reversed into spaces? It is a skill that it is often lost through time and pack of practice.

For any of your training requirements we can meet your drivers in a location of your choice and discuss why the training is being introduced and what form it will take and over what period. Should we need to source a training venue then we can take care of that also.

Apart from an introduction to in car assessment/training the classroom setting can also form a discussion forum where a risk assessment could be carried out, apart from some discussion about the company’s occupational road risk policy.

The behind the wheel work would normally follow this type of start to a training session.

Think about how your drivers will respond to having their driving skills assessed. Resistance is to be expected, however the launch of your occupational road risk policy will set the scene for the drivers participation.

For many drivers a 1to 1 ratio (1 driver: 1 trainer) is the ideal. They may feel less inhibited in discussing their driving with a trainer they do not know.
For many however a 2 to 1 ratio (2 drivers: 1 trainer) is much more effective. Think about how role play works in your organisation. It could work be that the second driver is learning from the first drivers experience and vice-versa
The third option is a 3to 1 ratio.

As a decision maker you need to balance effective training but within cost constraints.

Our prices are agreed for the type of work or mixture of work we need to supply. As we specialise in small business fleets we offer an affordable service that will deliver the results you need.

We also feel there could be a conflict of interests if we carried out the risk assessment so we guide you on the way forward for your organisation. We then concentrate on the training required.

T2Us: 2 Puttney Drive Sittingbourne Kent ME10 2SJ
Free phone 0800 43 46 119
www.t2usfleettraining.co.uk
enquiries@t2usfleettraining.co.uk

Everything happens for a reason!