Whether you have a whole fleet of vehicles for your sales team, delivery drivers and senior staff or you just have a couple of vehicles assigned to your warehouse, if you have staff driving for you then it’s important all the right boxes are ticked. Industry regulations, legal obligations and health and safety all dictate what your drivers can and can’t do and as the business owner it’s your responsibility.

Drivers

It’s standard practice to ask any potential employees if they have a clean driving licence, unfortunately this is one of the most common things people lie about on their CV. It doesn’t matter how big or small your operation is, if you have staff driving for you, it’s your responsibility to make sure they’re legally able to drive. Ask to see their original driving licence (if they’ve passed their driving test after 1998 you need to see the photo card and paper part). You need to check they don’t have any convictions they haven’t declared. If they lied in their interview you’re legally allowed to terminate their employment if their lie is going to cause you problems.

You also need to check the medical ability of your staff too, if their eye sight is too poor or they have a health condition you could still be held accountable for example if they have a seizure whilst driving your company vehicle.

Vehicles

Obviously you need to make sure all your vehicles are in top condition and their maintenance is your responsibility. If your staff come to you with a complaint you need to listen to them, if you ignore all their comments you won’t be informed when something is seriously wrong. Every vehicle needs to have a performance report completed after a set amount of miles, the last driver simply needs to report any noises that shouldn’t be there, if there’s any play on the break or clutch etc. This will let you know if a recurring problem needs to be fixed before it becomes too large.

Strike a deal with a local independent garage that you’ll bring all your vehicles to them if they can offer a discount. In most cases this will be cheaper than going to the manufacture garage as the warranty won’t always cover everything. If you do have a large fleet make sure you’re using a reputable asset management program to keep track of what needs servicing and when along with all warranty and insurance details.

Legalities

Obviously you’ve got to make sure every vehicle is insured and if you’ve checked the driver you’ll know if there are any problems. Insurance companies won’t always tell you if there’s a problem with your policy (if you have an accident and your insurance is invalid they don’t have to pay out). So make sure you go through your insurance policy with a fine tooth comb. You also need to make sure you’ve got legal cover just in case something happens. Drivers can only driver for a set amount of hours a day and only a set amount of hours in one go

Jessi works for white glove delivery service Panther who understand the importance of keeping all their vehicles in the best condition possible.