Legal issues around employing drivers
If you’re employing people to drive, you have a responsibility to:
- make sure they’re safe and legal to drive
- have the correct licence and qualifications
- have a tachograph to record their hours, if required.
Risk assessment
You’ll need to assess the risks involved in your employees' driving and put in place 'reasonably practicable' measures to manage these risks; for example, having a policy on how mobile phones should be used can ensure employees do not feel pressured into using a phone while driving.
Driver training
You’ll also need to make sure your employees' driving skills are up to date by providing appropriate training. If you employ a lot of drivers, in-house training might be the best way to deliver cost-effective training tailored to the needs of your business. Fleet driver training might also be useful: see the fleet training page.
Some organisations can provide driving tests to their staff by applying to appoint delegated examiners. Find out more about delegated examiners in the Becoming an HGV instructor section.