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Centrica launches own company driving licence
Date: 03 April 2007
British Gas owner Centrica has rolled out a pioneering permit-to-drive scheme to all its employees.
From now on all employees must gain a company-issued permit to drive a company, or even personal, vehicle on business.
Permits are gained by employees completing an hour-long risk assessment and taking a pledge to abide by all the company rules.
Developed in the US and increasingly growing in popularity within Europe, the permit scheme is being sold to fleets on the basis that it is a crucial way of updating and informing drivers on the company rules and ever-changing driving-for-work legislation while providing the employer with added protection from litigation should the worst happen.
Andy Cuerden, MD of Interactive Driving Systems, who helped Centrica introduce the permit scheme, expects this legal protection will grow in importance in light of new laws.
"As we tend to follow trends in the US in relation to litigation, we see this as being increasingly important in the UK, too, to help protect fleet managers against new legislation such as the Road Safety Act 2006 and corporate killing."
As well as added legal protection, Centrica's operations manager, Jon York welcomes the philosophical difference that comes with "turning our policies and procedures into everyday processes", instead of one-off company pushes to ensure company rule compliance.
