Grey fleet risk management
If a car is driven for business, no matter if it is owned by the business or not, then the employer has responsibility. Health and safety and duty of care regulations still apply. Whether a company fleet is looked after by a Fleet Manager, HR, or the Financial Director, they will need to be kept up to date on what is involved with grey fleet risk management.
Grey fleet management policy
Steve Whitmarsh, Managing Director at RunYourFleet.com, says;
“The law is very black and white over where responsbility for the vehicle and driver lies in terms of occupational road risk management.
Therefore, it is incumbent on all employers to have in place a robust ‘grey fleet’ management policy that will satisfy law enforcers should they knock on the office door in the event of an employee driving their own vehicle when on business and being involved in a crash.”
Complexities of the Grey Fleet
Some organisations have banned the use of grey fleet cars. The work involved in checking driving licences, motor insurance, vehicle excise duty, that the vehicle is serviced correctly and at regular intervals, and are under MoT for grey fleets while looking after regular fleet vehicles may not be cost effective for certain departments. This may be a last resort, but many organisations have introduced restrictions on grey fleets.
Grey Fleet Risk Management Services
For many companies, grey fleet expenses may be higher than renting a hire car would be. Add in the costs involved in grey fleet risk management then we can see why companies are banning or restricting the use of grey fleet vehicles. We have also seen an upturn in companies using the third option – using a fleet management company to manage all the workload involved in managing a grey fleet – including the grey fleet risk management services.
Managing a grey fleet
As Steve says,
“It is not onerous to ensure that employers that require staff to drive their own vehicles on business have in place a complete driver and vehicle document audit trail to mitigate their risk exposure. However, it does require a recognition of the issue.
It is equally clear that employers that pro-actively manage their ‘grey fleet’ are rewarded with a reduction in their risk exposure and are almost certainly cutting costs as well as their carbon footprint by reducing unnecessary business journeys.”
