Originally presented live 23/02/2021
Speaker: Chris Green, Partner, Keoghs
Specialist in regulatory and transport law

Chris leads Keoghs' crime and regulatory team across the Midlands and specialises exclusively in providing expert advice in relation to adverse incidents and compliance with regulatory requirements.

His experience includes representing companies, directors, senior managers, public sector organisations and individuals in defending, responding to and avoiding regulatory breaches.

COVID-19, and the various government-imposed restrictions, have meant many established road risk management policies have come under pressure. Chris will be discussing, among other things, corporate responsibility for:

• Managing fatigue in essential fleets working at capacity.
• The risks in not delivering your usual standard of new driver induction and training.
• The problem of driver wellbeing and managing the risks from anxious and distracted drivers.

• Compliance with COVID 19 and ongoing cultural buy-in.

• Identifying differences and wider effects that the COVID 19 changes have made.
• Businesses need to re-evaluate what is (now) reasonably practicable.
• Importance of engaging with drivers around fitness and suitability to drive.
• One year on and beyond. Implications for businesses.

Chris has been published, interviewed and quoted by the Times, BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 2, Radio 5 Live and Central News. He has also written published articles for the Financial Times, Insurance Post, Birmingham Post and Estates Gazette and Chris regularly delivers speeches and training for the leading practitioners’ bodies such as IOSH, ROSPA, the British Safety Council etc.

Questions answered from ARRM members:

• What should organisations with car fleets be doing in terms of preventing journeys from taking place in order to reduce exposure to staff?
• Do you are that the company policy needs to make it clear who is responsible for driver safety?
• What are the employers responsibilities for managing fatigue?
• Vocational licences have been renewed without medicals during the pandemic. Do employers need to take extra steps to ensure drivers meet medical standards?
• Social distancing has meant induction training has been restricted. Where do businesses stand on this?
• If your vehicle has a tracker fitted as an insurance condition. Is the insurance company responsible for the breaches if they do nothing about the alerts?
• Notwithstanding policies and procedures, some drivers are likely to be stressed/fatigued simply by what is going on around them and subsequently distracted or presenting risk
• With restrictions in place there have been more freight/goods vehicles on the road but as they lift there are businesses with mothballed fleets. What are companies responsibilities for getting these vehicles back on the road?
• If we do an internal investigation into an incident can HSE, DVSA or the police have access to the investigation and outcomes? Can they be confidential?
• Is it reasonable to accept a lower standard of checks because of covid restrictions for grey fleet staff?
• When using agency drivers it is acceptable to do a slimmed down induction?
• Should organisations be considering assessments of company car drivers returning to high mileage roles after furlough?