Workplace transport management standards

The HSE said workplace transport claimed sixty six lives a year with over 6,300 people suffering injury, costing the British taxpayer over £200 million last year and the cost to industry being "considerably more".

The management standards or "route map" will aim to help employers and workers manage the risks of workplace transport by providing a framework of current law, together with links to existing guidance.

Several sets of regulations govern workplace transport, and currently there are many guidance documents, some generic, others for specific industry sectors.

The HSE said the route map would offer a "clear path for all employers to follow best practice and meet their legal responsibilities, including setting out alternative ways to comply where these exist."

Medically fit

The proposals focus specifically on site layout and design, vehicle selection and maintenance, personnel matters and management responsibilities.

One of the measures suggests that all drivers should be assessed to ensure that they are medically fit to perform their duties. The route map also calls for systems to be put in place "to ensure that agreed fitness standards of drivers are maintained".

The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) believes that the management standards or 'route map' approach is preferable to new workplace transport regulations - which it thinks could be "too burdensome for industry", and would not necessarily deliver a reduction in deaths and injuries on its own.

In its 'regulatory impact assessment' the HSE said that the route map proposals could reduce the number of accidents due to workplace transport by between 10% and 20% each year.

Consultation exercise

Terry Rose, head of the Executive's field operations in Wales and the South West, said: "Every year people are killed and seriously injured in incidents involving vehicles at work.

"HSE aims to reduce this by 10% over three years by introducing clearer methods of identifying problems and providing guidance on how to put them right."

The HSE is currently seeking industry comments on the standards through a consultation exercise. The proposals are included in a document available via the HSE website, and will also be outlined at events in Cardiff, Birmingham and Edinburgh between 4 and 11 July.

The consultation exercise runs until 22 September.