I recently attended a taster session (classroom based) on the work of the Blue Lamp Trust (http://www.bluelamptrust.org.uk/). What I didn’t realise was how much risk you are putting yourself at by getting into a car for work. In 2009 there were 2,222 fatalities on our roads – 220, 000 recorded injuries of which 25,000 were life changing. 30% were work related. 833 were driving for work. 20% of all crashes are caused by tiredness and 30% not wearing a seat belt. The biggie for me is that most accidents happen within 3 miles of home.If you have people driving for you, make sure you have a procedure that works, that your staff understands and that you monitor because under health and safety law you have responsibilities. Think about mobile phone use – do you have a policy on hands free use -even this adds 0.3s to reaction time. What is your policy on tiredness, taking breaks overnight stops. It is worth checking out what these guys have to say – it sounds like yet another administrative burden but in the long run it makes sense to do this. As a final thought, do you check licenses for people who drive. Do you keep a copy, could they be fake driving licences and how as an employer do you make sure that you are not copying a fake one. You can get licenses independently checked for £5 to £6. So if this interests you check out http://www.bluelamptrust.org.uk/
Driving for Business
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