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ONE IN TEN SME EMPLOYEES IS AN UNINSURED DRIVER
According to a major new piece of research, one out of every ten employees in a small to medium sized business (SME) is driving an uninsured car when on business trips. Six out of ten employees (63%) said that they often drive their personal car for work, but one out of those six admitted that they have never told their insurance companies that they use their own car for this purpose.
It means that in the event of an accident during a work-related journey, those drivers will not be insured.
Vehicle maintenance is a vital element of road safety, but the research also revealed that many SME workers did not maintain their own cars or even know how to. A worrying one in five employees admitted that they only had the oil and tyre pressures checked when their car was serviced. An astonishing 7% confessed they did not know how often or whether their car was actually checked at all.
The survey into business transport among SMEs was undertaken by car hire firm Enterprise Rent-A-Car in conjunction with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). Hundreds of SME employees and employers were questioned to find out their attitudes and policies when it comes to work-related motoring.
Employers have a 'duty of care' to their employees, but this research clearly shows that many SMEs are not carrying out simple insurance and maintenance checks on personal cars being used for work-related trips. It also highlights the problems that companies face in meeting their legal responsibility to ensure employees are safe behind the wheel.
The reality is that if there is an accident during a work trip and an employee or his or her vehicle is at fault, the company could face massive fines, appalling publicity and potentially even prosecution for corporate manslaughter. The driver could also face criminal prosecution for not having the correct insurance cover.
The results of the survey suggest that SMEs either do not have policies in place to ensure that vehicles are checked regularly or simply fail to enforce the policies they do have.
It goes on to highlight a discrepancy between what employees say they were told and what employers say they told their staff: more than two thirds of employees revealed that their employers never asked them to carry out safety checks on their vehicles before making a work journey, but only a third (34%) of businesses admitted as much.
In addition, 38% of employers said they always asked employees to carry out a vehicle safety check but only 10% of drivers said that this actually happened.
The findings showed that almost one in five of the SME employees that use their own cars for business purposes drive at least 20,000 business miles a year and more than half drive more than 5,000 miles a year for work.
All drivers have a responsibility to ensure that their car is properly insured and maintained to an acceptable level. However, when a car is used by an employee for work related trips, the onus of responsibility very much rests on the employer.
Brice Adamson, UK and Ireland managing director at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, comments: "Many SMEs could be putting themselves at risk because they don't know enough about the cars their employees are using for business trips. Drivers, meanwhile, must have the correct insurance cover if they are driving their own cars for work.
"Companies have a legal responsibility to keep their employees safe, which is that much harder when the latter are driving personal cars over which their employer has little or no control.
"In the event of an accident on a work-related journey, if either the employee or his or her car is found to be at fault, the company could be held liable. SMEs have enough on their plate without having to deal with health and safety dilemmas that were avoidable in the first place."
Stephen Alambritis, Head of Parliamentary Affairs at the FSB, adds: "This research has highlighted some serious failings on the part of SMEs to ensure that personal cars used by employees for business trips are legal and properly maintained.
"It is clear that many employees who are allowed to use their own cars for work-related trips simply do not maintain and insure the cars for such a use. And employers are walking a legal tightrope by not keeping a tighter reign over their employees and enforcing transport policies.
"Letting employees use their own cars for business trips may seem cheap and convenient at first, but alternatives are available - such as company cars or rental - that can ensure that employers are in a much stronger position legally."
OTHER FINDINGS:
One in ten (10%) SME employees admitted that they had broken down whilst they were travelling on business in their own car.
One in three (32%) employees confessed that they never cleaned their vehicles. Interestingly the number of women (34%) that admitted they never cleaned their car was higher than the number of men (30%).
Nearly a third of SME employees said they would prefer their company to make alternative arrangements for business trips, such as providing rental vehicles or pool cars.
More than one in ten (12%) of the SME employees questioned admitted they had adjusted their motoring expense forms - either by adding extra mileage or arranging extra journeys to generate additional income.
