There has been a lot of hype around the new Health & Safety at Work Act, but three things are certain:
- It will take effect on April 4th
- It absolutely does include vehicle fleets, whether the company fleet is 1 or 1000 it will need to comply
- Non-compliance will be risky and mistakes will be expensive
- The time to get your vehicles and driver resources fleet fit is NOW
Ensuring the vehicle mix is fit for purpose, road-worthy at all times and (preferably) 5-star ANCAP rated is a good start but is no longer sufficient. You must now have formal accident management procedures, resources and reporting – and response must be available whenever and wherever a driver may be on the road, potentially 24/7 nationwide. Few clients will have the in-house expertise and coverage required.
Crash Management can help, our traditional free offering is a good start and will ensure the vehicle is safe and sound. We’ve also been working with our largest fleet clients for over a year to develop driver focused resources that are tailored to suit and H&S compliant including:
- Use of Vehicle Policy & Procedures
- driver support programmes
- driver repatriation plans
- emergency and injury reporting protocols
- escalation plans
We’ve done the work, developed the capability and documentation, and now we can deliver for all customers for just a few dollars a month. If your staff member is stuck with an undriveable car after hours, or worse, is injured in a vehicle accident – who is standing by to respond per the company’s protocols at 2.00am? Crash Management is. Contact us now to learn more.
Alan
This is a good reminder thanks and another area of risk fleet managers should discuss with their insurance broker BEFORE accident claims happen. Crash Managements a great service for all clients, great to know you can help with health & safety compliance for motor vehicle fleet too.
alan
This is timely. The over legal height digger that hit the Penrose motorway bridge yesterday will be in deep water by now. The underwriter won’t be happy and the OSH people will be crawling all over them. I know car fleets are your thing Crash Management but have you looked at trucks and yellow equipment – looks like there’s a market for it!
Francis Shortfield
Another good article and we’ll take these points on board along with yesterdays post regarding grey fleet management. Another issue that needs more clarification is lease terminations and their charges for any imperfection they deem to be outside fair wear and tear. This criteria is very tight and seems quite unreasonable in many cases and also can be very inconsistent. I’d like to hear from other fleet managers and their experiences with excessive lease termination charges. Thanks again and please keep the info coming.
karen knight
Thanks for your post Francis. You make a good point, lease termination charges for any degree of ‘damage’ can be a grey area for some clients and not all leasing companies are equal – as with any industry some are very good and some not so good. Crash Management only work with the selected few of course and we’re happy to provide our clients with guidance on that. We’ll schedule an article on Lease Terminations 101 as well, in the meantime please call us any time if you have a specific query or we can help peer review lease company repair quotes so you can be confident price and methodology represent good practice at a fair market rate. many thanks karen