Company drivers and the law
Every year around 22,000 serious injuries and 1,000 fatalities occur as a result of "at work" road traffic accidents. To reduce these figures the Health & Safety executive introduced the Corporate Manslaughter Act in 2007. This means that company directors have to implement an Occupational Road Risk policy. This policy essentially means that all company vehicles are treated as driver's workplace, so must comply with existing legislation. For example, drivers and mobile phones - the company must have a written policy, signed by the driver, that states that drivers must not use hand-held devices.
The penalties for non-compliance can include fines based on turnover and criminal prosecution for company directors found to be negligent. To return to our example - a company driver using a hand held mobile has an accident and seriously injures a pedestrian. The police will inform the Health & Safety. If the H&S find that no policy was in place to inform drivers not to use hand held mobiles, they are able to prosecute the company by arguing that the company was negligent in their duty of care.
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