Fleet bosses urged to 'tighten risk management'

Norwich Union Risk Services (NURS) warned that any company failing to fulfil its duty of care to employees and other road users could leave itself open to prosecution under the Corporate Manslaughter & Corporate Homicide Act 2007.

Steve Palmer, motor risk manager for NURS, said: "With the introduction of the Act and where a fleet manager has breached duty of care obligations that leads to a fatality, not only will the firm be liable for fines - as much as 10% of the firm's annual turnover according to the Sentencing Advisory Panel - but they could also face damaging, negative publicity.

"Fleet managers should be looking at reviewing existing risk management strategies in line with current legislation in order to create effective measures ahead of the introduction of the Act to minimise risk and prevent prosecution."

Steve said the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) had suggested five basic principles for firms to follow. These included - identifying hazards; deciding who might be harmed and how; evaluating the risks and deciding on the necessary precautions; recording and implementing findings; and reviewing risk assessments and updating these where necessary.

Duty of care reports

He added: "These strategies need to be extended to minimise road risks. For instance, vetting and inducting all drivers to ensure that they are properly licensed, competent, suitably trained and medically fit to drive, as well as the suitable provision and maintenance of vehicles, journey planning and the recording and investigating of all accidents.

Steve recommended that fleets invest in telematics to give managers "comprehensive online duty of care reports" - providing information about driver behaviour, speed, journey times, road types, mileage and claims information.

"Online reporting allows a business to look at and assess the information more regularly on specific vehicles or the whole fleet, and monitor and manage driver behaviour," he said. "Workplace transport as well as health and safety must also be assessed. For example, the number of vehicles moving around in a confined loading area or traffic management.

"The increased potential for prosecution under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act should motivate senior managers to take health and safety management even more seriously, particularly if running a fleet.

"Good risk management is good fleet management and the cost is far less than the cost of prosecution if a senior manager breaches their duty of care. Best practice should be incorporated into the management culture."