With the rising pattern for on-line procuring, next-day supply and the retail/hospitality expertise displaying no indicators of slowing down, companies often must recruit further employees to fulfill elevated demand (notably within the run as much as Christmas). A serious nationwide newspaper has reported that roughly 250,000 short-term positions will probably be on provide over the festive interval and never simply in eating places, bars and retailers, but in addition in warehouses and supply.
Yodel, the courier large just lately introduced they want an additional 1,500 short-term employees nationwide, together with HGV class 1 drivers, warehouse operations, van drivers and couriers to meet consumer calls for. With an elevated variety of vans, HGVs and supply automobiles on the highway, inevitably comes a better danger of accidents. Look again 2 years to December 2017 and there have been 462 deadly or critical accidents involving items automobiles.
What’s Grey Fleet?
Throughout these busy durations on-line retail corporations will typically use ‘grey fleet’ drivers to ship to prospects. Grey fleet is solely the time period used to explain any automobile that doesn’t belong to the corporate, however is used for enterprise journey.
In response to one BBC investigation, on a typical day a supply driver for a number one firm will make 150-200 deliveries. Though most corporations will advise drivers to take common consolation breaks, the fact is that this frenetic tempo of labor permits little or no time for breaks, typically leading to excessive tiredness.
Sadly, tiredness is a significant contributing issue to highway accidents however is not the one danger of getting a better variety of ‘grey fleet’ automobiles on the highway:
Grey Fleet: The dangers
As a result of grey fleet automobiles don’t belong to the corporate, fleet managers face an advanced set of points in the case of managing the security of their fleet. For one factor, workers utilizing their very own automobile could also be exterior of the established insurance coverage and servicing insurance policies, which means their automobiles will not be lined for firm journey. One other problem is attempting to maintain observe of the standing of grey fleet automobiles to make sure they meet authorized highway necessities, together with:
- Driving license validity
- Insurance coverage particulars together with enterprise use
- MOT certification
- Highway Tax validity
Along with this, companies additionally want to think about the suitability of the automobile for work functions. This might embody the age and situation, or whether or not the automobile is provided with ABS, ESP, air con and whether or not or not it’s appropriate for the journey necessities of the corporate.
To assist keep away from accidents on the highway, RoSPA recommends that each one supply drivers are skilled or skilled in dealing with dangers on the highway. RoSPA affords a bespoke Grey Fleet administration coaching course which permits corporations to handle their grey fleet.
The good thing about endeavor such coaching is a fast and easy self-certification course of, which is accessible to all drivers and sends alerts robotically to people and managers for MOT’s, insurance coverage, highway tax and so on.
For extra info on our Grey Fleet Administration course go to our web site, e mail or name us on +44 (0)121 248 2233.