Managing risk in the work-place when work is a vehicle

Health & Safety Event 25-27 April 2023, NEC Birmingham

Around 120,000 HR and Health & Safety professionals will be out in force in Birmingham at the Health and Safety Event. This is where the biggest work-place risk – driving for work – will be explored.

A third of all road collisions in Britain involves someone driving as part of their job. The Health and Safety at Work Act requires employers to take appropriate steps to ensure the health and safety of their employees and others who may be affected by their activities when at work. This applies when driving in the same way as it does in the workplace.

Visitors to the Driving for Better Business stand in the Driver Safety Zone can play a game with a serious message: how braking speeds are affected by loading, tyre and road conditions and how impairment from drugs, alcohol and fatigue alters reaction times and performance.

In the Driver Safety Theatre, industry leaders will share their knowledge and experience on a wide range of topics, including mental health, drug testing, fatigue, phone use and other distractions. A mock trial explores how and why an incident occurred and where fault lay; and a session on incident investigation looks at the legal ramifications on directors and senior managers if they fail to learn from these incidents.

“Legal responsibility for driver safety sits at the top of the company in the same way that any other occupational health and safety issue does but, in addition to this, failure to manage it correctly is increasingly going to have an impact on a company’s ability to win new work,” says Simon Turner, Campaigns Manager for Driving for Better Business. “The highways and rail sectors are now demanding contractors and suppliers demonstrate they have appropriate driver safety management systems in place – a positive trend that will certainly become more widespread.