Driving
Contents
Your legal responsibility
It's important to ensure that all work vehicles comply with road traffic law requirements, such as a valid MOT certificate and road tax, and that all drivers have a valid driver's licence. In addition, you should also consider other risks involved when driving.
If an employee must drive as part of their job, they should do the following to avoid accidents:
- Plan their journey to include a 15-minute break every 2 hours.
- Find a safe place to stop if they feel drowsy (but not the hard shoulder).
- Drink a high-caffeine drink and wait for 10–15 minutes to allow time for the caffeine to take effect.
- Don't start a long trip if they're already tired.
- Try to avoid long trips between 12am and 6am.
- Don't use a mobile phone while driving.
If your employees drive commercial vehicles or frequently drive while at work for more than 2 hours a day, you need to carry out a special risk assessment.
What is the law guide
The Desktop Lawyer law guide aims to present the law to you in a comprehensive yet jargon-free and easy-to-read format. Our law guide is constantly kept up to date with changes in business and family law by our team of in house solicitors, and includes information across all the legal jurisdictions in the UK.
Our law guide is free to use. Where we provide documents related to this area of law, or where they may help you with any legal issue in this area, they will be listed to the right of this message.