We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on the Business Car website. However, if you would like to, you can change your cookies at any time
The start point for the best source of fleet information |
With proposed fines rising to £2500 it's worth your while being prepared for the Government's new 'smoke-free' legislation, says Guy Bird
Put the date in your diary: 1 July 1 2007. From 6am that day the law will change so that staff caught smoking in their 'workplace' - enclosed cars or vans used by more than one employee - will be able to be fined, rather than merely heavily frowned upon, for harming themselves and others with second-hand smoke.
"Too bad" the average non-smoker might say, but non-smoking fleet managers needn't think they're off the hook. As our lead news story on page one reveals, you don't have to be a smoker to fall foul of the new legislation - in fact, the biggest fines are reserved for those who fail to prevent workplaces from staying smoke-free.
As the recent consultation Smoke Free Premises and Vehicles relating to the forthcoming Health Act legislation puts it: "We define [an] operator in relation to a smoke-free vehicle to mean any person with management responsibilities for the vehicle."
An employee suspected of having a crafty tab in the company pool car could be fined £50, but get away with just a £30 penalty notice if they are not caught red-ember-handed and pay up within 15 days. But even if they are nabbed in the very act of dragging on the death stick and dropping ash into the company-owned car's ashtray, and then found guilty in a court of law, the maximum fee is still only £200 - hardly enough to offset the residual value damage done to the car after three years' smoking let alone any staff health bills.
There are two laws for the fleet manager to get savvy to, and quick. Fail to put up sufficiently clear non-smoking signage in their cars or vans or fail to do enough to prevent smoke-free vehicles staying that way, and the fines escalate quickly. Penalty notices for those who don't sort out adequate no-smoking stickers are proposed to start at £200 (again with a discount, this time to £150, if the penalty is paid within 15 days).
Get taken to court for the same offence and you could be whacked with a £1000 fine - just for not having enough or the right kind of stickers in your company vehicles. For the record, here are a few guidelines: "The sign is to be displayed in a position that is prominently visible to a person entering the vehicle. The minimum requirements are that the sign for smoke-free vehicles is to display the international 'no smoking' symbol, consisting of a graphic representation of a burning cigarette enclosed in a red circle with a red bar across it, at least 75mm in diameter." So now you know.
Finally, being found guilty of not doing enough to prevent a designated smoke-free vehicle from being smoked in and you could be up for the biggest fine of all - £2500 with no penalty notices or discounts available.
So now is the time to look at company car handbooks, get updates issued and signed by all the relevant staff and purchase a job lot of appropriate no-smoking stickers for multi-occupancy business drivers. Then when the managing director gets caught in a sting by the local council inspectors at Watford Gap services after an 'anonymous tip-off' - suspected to be from the fit non-smoking secretary he generously drove to regular meetings as part of the fledgling company car share scheme, but kept blowing smoke over - you're in the clear. Phew! Breathe in the fresh air of freedom.
If your cars are leased, your contract hire partners can help too. In Scotland, where similar smoke-free legislation already applies, leasing firms are providing non-smoking stickers for vehicles at a client's request. Masterlease's Adrian Baldwin says the English laws will only help from a HR and safety perspective: "The laws should give employees, especially junior members of staff, the confidence to challenge senior ones over smoking in cars. Smoking is such a distraction when driving anyway - especially when the end of the cigarette drops in your lap."
The only get-out clause for diehard company car driving tabbers whose vehicle is a de facto workspace for more than one person is the wording of the law on what defines an 'enclosed space' in relation to vehicles. In simple terms, drive a convertible with the top down and you can smoke for England, whoever is in the car with you, but drive and smoke with the top up and it's game over. I can see a boom in coupe/cabriolet 'pool' cars just around the corner.
BusinessCar magazine ©2019
Business Car Magazine © 2020 | Business Car is part of NS Media Group.
