Compliance Package

Insurance based products for the modern fleet

Grey Fleet

A ‘grey fleet’ is defined as any vehicle that is utilised for business purposes. This includes: cash-for-car, a car obtained via an Employee Car Ownership (ECO) scheme, a privately-owned vehicle used for occasional journeys or a vehicle that the employee has hired outside of any particular company-provided scheme.

These vehicles can form a potential problem for companies because procedures relating to how an individual should act when on the road are seldom followed. There is evidence that employees using their own vehicles for business purposes are managed less effectively by organisations; however, these employees pose a risk on par, if not greater, than those driving vehicles that are managed by a Fleet Manager: licence checking, road-awareness or vehicle road-worthiness are relevant to all individuals who drive on company business and as such making sure that these obligations are met is a duty and necessity for all organisations.

Negligence and Duty of Car

The ‘Driving at work – managing work related road safety’ guidelines, published by the Department for Transport (DfT) and Health & Safety Executive (HSE) in 2003, make it clear that an organisation has the same Duty of Care towards all its employees making work-related journeys regardless of vehicle ownership. Company Officers now have a direct responsibility to ensure full compliance with the relevant legislation, whether a company owned fleet or not, this in turn has a direct relation to their employees; failure of this duty can result in a number of severe penalties.

Health and safety legislation

• Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007
• Health and Safety Act 2009

Penalties

Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007

In most instances the minimum fine for convictions under the Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007 would be £500,000, although where appropriate the fine ascribed could extend well into the millions or several hundred thousand pounds.

Health and Safety Act 2009

This can result in a two year prison sentence being prescribed to company officers and directors: in effect, it means company officers and directors could be prosecuted for not doing their job correctly.

The legislation is applicable to all vehicles used for business purposes and hence includes a company’s ‘grey fleet’.

Solution

UDrive Solutions offer services and technology that can adequately capture the audit trail of all vehicles. This audit trail is very important as it shows that a company has fulfilled its obligations under the health and safety legislation. The capturing of the audit trail is particularly important in relation to a company’s ‘grey fleet’, as it is often not embedded in a Fleet Managers management system. Vehicle maintenance has become an essential part in reducing the risk to not only the employee but also the organisation: the audit trail that can be captured via the process of vehicle management is necessary in reducing the overall risk posed by a company’s ‘grey fleet’. Without the solutions offered by UDrive such a process becomes near impossible as the organisation becomes reliant solely on the diligence of its individual employees.

Products

• Uninsured Loss Recovery
• Legal Expense Insurance
• Online Driver Risk Assessment
• Driver Licence Verification
• Accident Management / FNOL
• Driver Rehabilitation Insurance
• Loss of Licence ‘Points Protector’ Insurance
• Free Telematics Device