Fleet risk management is a vital part of a company’s health and safety (H&S) operations. If you ask employees to drive on company business, keeping them as safe as possible is your responsibility.

Regardless of whether you have a small or large mobile workforce, fleet management is an area that can hold a significant level of H&S risk. Under the new H&S Act, Persons Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBUs) need to ensure they have effective compliance practices in place that will stand up in a court of law in the event of an accident.

Understanding H&S law is a huge task, and at times it can feel like a minefield trying to keeping up with all of the changes. If you’re responsible for making sure your company is compliant, implementing and documenting health and safety procedures requires ongoing work, which is time consuming.

This is particularly true when it involves influencing change to the culture or behaviour of a company. Compliance requires buy-in from people at all levels of your organisation, and getting a large workforce to change habits takes time.

We’re here to make the process easier. In this blog, we look at key changes to H&S laws you need to be aware of, and show you how to assess whether your current fleet risk management strategy is up-to-scratch under the Act.

Want to find out whether your fleet is compliant with current Health and Safety legislation? Take our quiz.

Key Considerations under the Health and Safety at Work Act

Several changes have been made to the H&S Act that could impact your organisation. It’s important to understand these and to make sure all possible steps are taken to follow best practice, so your company isn’t liable. These changes include:

• Company vehicles are included as being part of the workplace. With a more mobile workforce than ever before, this is likely to have a significant impact on organisations.
• Increased duties and responsibilities for everyone. This includes PCBUs and can involve penalties between $300k - $3 million, along with a criminal record.
• Fleet operators are responsible for the safety of vehicles and any workers who use them. They need to identify hazards and have appropriate measures in place to reduce or eliminate these hazards in order to provide a safe working environment.

Is my current fleet risk plan compliant?

Providing a safe environment for your mobile workforce, means first identifying the current risks in your business. To help, our new quiz can determine your liability under the Act, and where you might need to make changes.

As part of this, the quiz assesses all elements of a good fleet risk management plan, and can point you in the right direction towards health and safety compliance.

The quiz also gets you thinking about different aspects of your current fleet risk management plan, and identifies the areas that need work. This shows you where to put your focus, to ensure you meet legal requirements, and will help your systems, policies and procedures run more efficiently.

The key to achieving a safe driving culture is an effective fleet risk management plan that protects your company and the people in it. To do so, you need to know you’re complaint under the H&S law. SurePlan can help, by providing the tools you need to assess whether your current fleet risk management strategy meets requirements. If not, now is the time to take steps towards ensuring your company is protected.