Courier firms will have duty of care towards employee road safety
Date: 25 January 2008
The new Corporate Manslaughter (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and Corporate Homicide (Scotland) Act will mean courier firms have a duty of care to ensure the safety of employees driving courier vans and making deliveries of loads.
The act will take effect on April 6th, and "should be embraced as an opportunity to improve safety, profitability and employee effectiveness by reducing road crashes, fuel use, insurance, maintenance, fleet costs and bad publicity", RoadTransport.com reports.
It means that it will be easier for courier firms to be prosecuted for manslaughter in the event of a work-related death, with specific attention paid to the way senior management organises the company's activities.
Rather than a need to identify one specific responsible individual, the law only requires that a significant element of the failure be at management level.
Courier firms should ensure that their senior managers fully understand their health and safety obligations, and that all reasonable steps are taken to avoid risks to courier drivers on the roads, delivering their loads.
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