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Fleets are being urged to review their risk policies as the Health and Safety Executive has updated its guidance on driving at work for the first time in more than 10 years.
There have not been significant changes to the guidance, but fleets should read through the document in order to stay compliant, said Nigel Grainger, Fleet Risk Consultants' managing director: "The good companies will already be up to speed with this, but it's good practice to check through the updated document."
Grainger believes the larger concern is that the HSE is issuing and updating guidance that it doesn't enforce.
He said: "The HSE is not investigating road deaths from cars driven at work. The police are being left to enforce this guidance, and while they may catch individual drivers, it doesn't then go back to the business that employs that driver."
A spokesman for the HSE said it only becomes involved if police find activity where clear management failings are identified.
Gary Killeen, fleet services commercial leader for GE Capital UK, said: "The new version of 'Driving at Work' is not different in spirit or in strategy from the original 2003 document, but it provides more detailed guidance. Much of this is based on what the HSE and fleets have learnt over the past decade about what works best in practice when it comes to risk management."
Killeen said there are approximately 1700 deaths on the road each year and somewhere between a quarter and a third of those involved are drivers on business.
A spokesman for the HSE told BusinessCar that work-related road incident statistics are notoriously hard to define.
The driving incidents at work are not Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) reportable, so Department for Transport statistics are used.
The HSE spokesman said: "The type of vehicle involved helps identify whether those involved are working, i.e. bus or LGV, and, of course, vehicle ownership in the case of fleet drivers, but there are difficulties identifying drivers who are from the 'grey fleet' - those using their own vehicle for work purposes."
Killeen said: "What the HSE wants to do is to get more employers to take road-related risk management seriously. There is definitely a gap, and one which is probably growing, between those that diligently follow the latest best practice and those who do not believe, or refuse to believe, that this is their responsibility.
"While the majority of those who are not really doing anything to manage the risk management aspects of their fleet are often small and medium-sized companies, we still quite regularly come across major employers who are simply not addressing the issue.
"The key message behind the updated guidance is that if any of your employees drive on business, then you have. increasingly detailed responsibilities. From an ethical, legal and financial point of view, you need to take action."
Fleets can download the updated guidance via bit.ly/HSEdrivingatwork.
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