Despite the fact that about a quarter of all vehicle miles travelled currently on Britain’s roads are for work purposes (excluding commuting) 1, less than 5 per cent of small businesses in the UK have a person designated to fleet management, let alone a dedicated fleet manager.
This has led to a striking lack of awareness among small businesses, and many medium sized organisations, of the responsibilities they shoulder for their business drivers, regardless of whether they are driving a company or privately owned vehicle. Run Your Cars introduces risk management services to help companies of all sizes to meet the legislation requirements in a cost-effective and efficient way.
The issue is a massive one with 3 million company car drivers and a further 5 million drivers carrying out work-related journeys in their private cars. In fact, 20 of these drivers die every week on our roads. It is the employers who have a moral and legal obligation to ensure the safety of their drivers. And, investigations show that the Police and HSE will jointly scrutinise accidents, considering how both employees and employers will be involved in any resulting prosecutions.
Steve Whitmarsh from Run Your Cars comments, “People driving on company business are considered to be at work, their cars being their place of work. Many companies encourage their staff to drive their own cars believing that this would be more cost effective and would reduce their liabilities. In truth, the associated risks are higher than ever as businesses have less control over vehicle condition and insurance.
In the eyes of the Health and Safety Executive there is no distinction between someone driving a vehicle on business and someone operating a machine tool in a factory. So, companies need to implement some form of risk management system for driving at work. We don’t suggest for a moment that all small businesses take on a fleet manager. That would be costly and wasteful. However, they do need to be aware of their legal responsibilities towards employees driving for work purposes and take steps to address them. We offer companies of all sizes the services they need to meet the requirements of legislation in a cost-effective, efficient and compelling way. They ignore their responsibilities at their peril!”
Run Your Cars customers pay a low cost monthly membership fee per vehicle which gives them access to the following:
•An online fleet management system
•Free RAC breakdown
•Free Accident Management
•Online risk management solution
•Specially negotiated rates on hire cars
•Massive discounts on servicing at over 6000 main dealer and independent outlets
•Vehicle contract hire and leasing
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