As the big day draws ever closer, more and more companies have increased the number of drivers they employee in order to meet the seasonal increase in home deliveries. With more than half of UK consumers now shopping online, demand for delivery drivers is high. But ensuring all drivers are compliant is becoming an increasing challenge for businesses, prompting the Licence Bureau to encourage all businesses to ensure drivers have a permit to drive legally.
According to Malcom Maycock, managing director if Licence Bureau potential compliance issues are “an increasing challenge for businesses,especially during the busy festive period,”. He continued, “The law is simple,as an employer you need to ensure your drivers have a permit to drive to legally drive on company business.”
This includes ensuring that drivers adhere to any regulations or driving hours, however as acknowledged by Maycock “The fact that most of these vehicles sit outside of any operator regulatory framework also gives rise to further challenges with many drivers wanting to ‘cash in’ during the busy spell by working long days and potentially exposing themselves to greater risk.”
With so much going on at this time of year, the Licence Bureau is advising small businesses taking on extra staff to adopt three simple but practical procedures in order to aid their road safety compliance and keep all staff safe. These include:
· Driver Licence Checks- Businesses should be sure to check license status, entitlement to drive, date validity, points or endorsements and license category coverage before employing anyone new, and keep this practice up regardless of whether staff are temporary.
· Vehicle status- Ensuring all up-to-date records of vehicle details, including basic registration, certificates and service schedules is vital for all employers and employees.
· Business use insurance cover- For grey fleet drivers, employers should request insurance certificate copies from drivers to ensure ‘business use’ is in place. Typically, this is exempt from ‘standard policies’which cover social, domestic and pleasure use and driving to and from a permanent place of work.
During the busy festive period, it’s easy to forget to check driver details and ensure that they are following rules regarding driving hours. However, as a business owner it’s vital that compliance is maintained in order for all employees to continue ‘driving home for Christmas’!
