Hi Ria,
I would be advising my clients that under their duty of care to at the very least to check documents and complete a risk assessment, if the driver is deemed at risk because of their driving past, the mileage driven, and/or types of road driven, to have their driving assessed. (which your posting suggests he will be driving high mileage on your companies behalf, and at times with members of the company staff, in a large variation of types of roads, would seem prudent)
Click Here.......Driving at work pdfSome employers believe, incorrectly, that provided they comply with certain road
traffic law requirements, eg company vehicles have a valid MOT certificate, and that drivers
hold a valid licence, this is enough to ensure the safety of their employees, and others, when
they are on the road.
Remember showing a clean driving licence does not necessarily mean that they actually have a clean driving licence, however there are ways of checking the validity of them.
Plus they should be checked regularly to ensure your drivers have not "collected" any points or worse been banned!
The driver should be able to provide documents to show the car has been correctly serviced, their insurance should be for business purposes, Taxed and MOTed if applicable as well as having public liability, professional indemnity insurance to cover himself against any clims.
This guidance applies to any employer, manager or supervisor with staff who drive, or ride a
motorcycle or bicycle at work, and in particularly those with responsibility for fleet
management. It also applies to self-employed people.
Often the self-employed don't feel it applies to them and ignore the regulations, but if it’s a requirement to "secure" a job they have a very little reason to object.
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 19742 requires you to ensure, so far as is reasonably
practicable, the health and safety of all employees while at work. You also have a
responsibility to ensure that others are not put at risk by your work-related driving activities.
(Self-employed people have a similar responsibility to that of employers.)
Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999,3 you have a
responsibility to manage health and safety effectively. You need to carry out an assessment
of the risks to the health and safety of your employees, while they are at work, and to other
people who may be affected by their work activities. The Regulations require you to
periodically review your risk assessment so that it remains appropriate.
I'm sure your staff or others will NOT be impressed if they are involved in a crash and THEN discover there is a PROBLEM.
Policy
Does your health and safety policy statement cover work-related road safety? Your policy
should be written down if you employ five or more people.
I hope you do have a company policy on driving at work.
What does it say about employing contractors?
Speaking personally here I feel IR35 is maybe being used as a smoke screen, as my understanding on this is the contractor cannot be dependent upon your work alone, did this vacancy come about because a member of staff left (if so I would think you were on sticky ground).
If he is insuring the vehicle for business use, has public liability, professional indemnity insurance, does not work full time for your company and it is possible for him to lose money, he is not an employee!
I feel the key to this is the contract of "services he is providing".
Click here..... HMRCReally you should be asking HMRC and/or a tax expert for their feelings on this issue
