Driving for Better Business: vehicle roadworthiness

As part of its partnership with Driving for Better Business (DfBB), the Association will start sharing road safety topics with the aim of improving knowledge and reducing industry-related road accidents.

As highlighted in the autumn edition of BALI’s quarterly magazine, Landscape News, the industry has a mixed record where road safety is concerned. Landscaping, like construction and civil engineering, is a site-based trade where driving is an integral part of the job role - but the driving aspect is not always given the consideration it deserves.

There is a tendency amongst some business to overlook the risk posed by work-related driving, and the skillset required to safely carry out this aspect of the business activities. Consequently, the category of vehicles commonly used by the industry (light goods vehicles, or LGV) - which include panel vans and derivatives including crew-cab, box van, chassis cab, tipper, drop-side, compact/car-derived - is a category with a poor record in relation to both accident statistics and roadside vehicle checks. 

Recent safety campaigns led by National Highways, targeted at inspecting commercial vans during road-side inspections, revealed the following trends:

- Two thirds of vans stopped at the roadside by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) had a serious mechanical defect
- Following inspection, 40% of vans were prohibited from continuing their journey  
- Half of all new vans fail their MOT at first attempt

Drivers of company vehicles are responsible for ensuring their roadworthiness, which includes undertaking daily checks with the aim of identifying defects. Managers should provide employees with training and have procedures for reporting defects, but it is the driver who may be required to provide evidence of these checks if challenged by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) or Police. 

Managers (and consequently, employees) may be unaware of their duties, which is why DfBB has created a series of resources, designed to outline  the responsibilities of managers and employees are. This month, DfBB has released a suite of resources relating to vehicle roadworthiness, including a toolbox talk video, factsheet and article. Click the link below for more information. 

Further reading

Driving for Better Business: Vehicle roadworthiness