Preventive and proactive maintenance and walkaround checks are very important for your fleet and business as they help prevent downtime, save on costs, and their records could have a significant impact on some of your decision making. But if you consider safety, legality and compliance, it not only makes for good business practice, it is clearly mandatory. Not having a system in place will negatively influence your business operations and of course it might lead to sanctions. But it doesn’t end there: legal actions will not only cost you money and affect the workforce, but it damages the company reputation as well. Something you might find impossible to fully recover from…
Under health and safety law, specifically under the Corporate Manslaughter Act as well as the Commercial Vehicle Roadworthiness Act, employers and drivers can be charged with offences that impact on their reputation and the ability to work again. The number of prosecutions is growing, along with the increasing attention on these matters.
In a recent case, the owner and operator of a logistics company in the UK had failed to record the walkaround checks of a vehicle he was due to drive, as well as office and maintenance work carried out (a legal requirement). He was first sentenced as a driver, but later had his operator’s licence revoked after further investigations. The case started when the driver of the company killed two cyclists; further investigations revealing flaws in the safety system actually led to the charge.
While in this case the failings were negligent rather than deceitful, in another investigation a Walsall HGV driver was disqualified from driving professionally for a year after he tried to hide his deliberate abuse of the safety rules and his employer’s operator’s licence was revoked.
Work related safety procedures (on and off the public highway) must be shared by everyone and become standard practice; businesses have to make sure nothing is skipped and that safety and compliance go hand in hand. It is just too risky to ignore—do you really think your business can afford to?
If you want to organise your maintenance competently and make sure your walkaround checks are carried out properly, have a look at what SynX can do for you. Get in touch for a demo or a quote from our system and enjoy peace of mind, knowing you are operating safely and compliantly.