Driving whilst at work – are you legal?

The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act came into force in April of 2008 and, under this Act, employers have a duty of care to ensure the safety of employees driving for work purposes – whether using their own or a company vehicle. The revised legislation makes it easier to prosecute companies that fail to protect people – and there are some hefty penalties for non-conformance, particulary involving fatalities – with management and directors now more accountable for these incidents. Are your drivers legal?

In these times of flexible working conditions the number of mobile workers continues to increase, but the need for them to remain ‘in touch’ with the office remains a priority. However, managing this communication channel can be a logistical nightmare – a GPRS-linked, hand-held computer could offer the solution as it is a cost-effective tool that can be used safely and legally.

“These systems puts the workers in control but provides management with all the information needed to assure health and safety compliance,” commented Aston Clarke, Director. “Companies can use the application of mobile computing to automate the auditing process, allowing automatic, real time gathering of data images and approval signatures that are relayed back to the control system – making this information immediately available for checking and for onward transmission and sharing where necessary.”

Aston went on to say that as well as health and safety, the same technology has applications in asset management, property maintenance, vehicle maintenance and construction. “For example, applied to maintenance and repair, jobs can be received ‘live’ via the hand-held unit, complete with automated job sheet, and the worker can respond accordingly, with all relevant data being stored or transmitted for analysis and records.

This not only maintains communication but also registers work actions without the need for additional paperwork giving an auditable trail that is also stored centrally. Speed and efficiency can be greatly improved and administration workload significantly reduced.”