While there are few in the fleet industry who doubt that 2009 will be a tough year, corporate life goes on despite the economic downturn.

Companies still face the same challenges they did previously in ensuring that they have met all their duty of care obligations for employees who drive for work, while current and new legislation reinforces the fact that failure to do so can be punitive.

Most fleets will by now be familiar with the provisions of the Corporate Manslaughter Act which early last year introduced stringent fines for non-compliance, while the Health and Safety Offences Act 2008, which comes into force on January 16, brings in tough new penalties for breaching health and safety regulations.

These two pieces of legislation serve to illustrate the fact that companies cannot afford to put duty of care issues on the back burner, even in an economic downturn.

At Cardinus Fleet Risk Management, we are set for a record year due to significant new contracts for risk management, e-learning and driver training signed at the end of 2008, which show that some major companies clearly recognise where their obligations to their employees lie and are not ignoring them.

An exciting new product development for 2009 is the new electronically generated driver permit we have just produced, which is only issued to a company driver if a number of conditions, such as a successful licence check, vehicle condition check, and completion of e-learning or driver training, have all been met. This will provide valuable physical proof for fleet managers that duty of care responsibilities have been met for each of their drivers.

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