How many people really work while driving?

Posted 5 years ago

For many, a large portion of their working hours are taken up by driving. Commuting to work is not generally classified as driving for work. So for many, if they are driving during their working hours employees may feel inclined to work while driving. By this we mean making phone calls, having meetings over the phone or even writing up minutes using speak to text synthesisers.

Populus conducted a survey for NFU Mutual of 1175 people and found that 67% of people drive for work and only 38% agreed that they had a culture to help them drive safely. While 27% said that they believe work stress factored ni them becoming stressed behind the wheel. 25% of the survey participants reported that they felt tired after demands for work outside work hours caused the fatigue.

To add to this, 16% of people admitted to taking work calls and 5% have responded to emails whilst driving.

Driving for work and the law

Employers have a responsibility under the Health and Safety at Work Act for on the road work activities (including employees using their own vehicles to make work journeys). As well as this, if you are travelling from home to a different place of work (that is not your normal place of work) then this counts as ‘driving for work’.

Employers should ensure that their employees are not put at risk by work-related activities while driving. They might do this through Driver Awareness Training or providing risk assessments, regular eye tests or checking an employees own car is safe to drive.

If you are self-employed, you have the same responsibility that an employer does to an employee to themselves.

Driver’s responsibilities include:

having a valid UK licence
ensuring the vehicle they are using is road safe
taking extreme weather into account when planning journeys
having knowledge of the Highway Fitness COde and legal duties
not using mobile phones or any other distracting electronic equipment (e.g. laptops)

Driver Awareness Training

Every week, around 200 road deaths or serious injuries involve someone driving for work.

Our Online Driver Awareness Training Course educates both employers and employees alike on their responsibilities on the road, safe driving, how to make a journey safer, making your vehicle safer and what to do if you are in an accident or if you breakdown.

Why not get in in touch today for a free trial!