A new campaign has been launched in Ireland in an attempt to highlight the dangers involved in driving for work to both employers and employees.
The TV-led campaign – produced by Ireland’s Road Safety Authority (RSA), Health & Safety Authority (HSA) and An Garda Síochána (Irish Police) – looks to underline the importance of putting in place proper measures to ensure the safety of employees who drive.
The campaign, which is aimed at both professional drivers and those who drive as part of their job, runs under the simple premise ‘if you are driving for work, you’re at work!’.
The TV advert (featured) shows a range of different employers in the aftermath of a collision involving one of their employees. The employers all express regret, sorrow and guilt for not having correctly managed employee risk, ending with the words ‘this shouldn’t happen’.
The RSA estimates that one in three road collisions every year in Ireland involves someone driving for work, meaning that up to 63 lives could have been lost in work related road collisions in Ireland in 2016.
The RSA reinforces the point that if an employee is driving for work, it is the responsibility of their employer to ensure a driving for work policy is in place to minimise the risks faced.
As part of the campaign, HSA has developed a free online course, ‘Managing Driving for Work’. The course covers the risks associated with driving for work and how to manage employees, vehicles and work-related journeys to prevent collisions on the road.
Moyagh Murdock, RSA chief executive, said: “People who drive for work are 40% more likely than other drivers to be involved in a collision.
“Employers need to understand that they have a legal and moral responsibility towards employees who drive as part of their job. It is the employer’s responsibility to minimise all safety risks which could affect their employees while they drive for work.”
Assistant commissioner Michael Finn, roads policing, said: “An Garda Síochána’s message to any employer who does not have a driving for work safety system in place is to ‘Put one in place as soon as possible’.
“There is an obligation to do so and the consequences of not having one are too grave for this to be dismissed. At best in the event of a collision, you are risking your reputation as a fair and compliant employer – at worst you could have to live with the guilt of being responsible for someone’s serious injury or even death.”
Want to know more about driving for work and road safety?
Online library of research and reports etc – visit the Road Safety Knowledge Centre
Key facts and summaries of research reports – visit the Road Safety Observatory
Good campaign video. I hope it is aimed and seen by at least as many employers as employees. Lots of companies have a ‘driving for work’ policy in place but only pay lip service to it. For example, expecting drivers to answer hands-free phones whilst driving is still far too common.
Pat, Wales
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Isn’t this misinterpreting statistics? “The RSA estimates that one in three road collisions every year in Ireland involves someone driving for work”. Possibly, but the collisions did not happen because they were driving for work, they just happened to be driving ‘for work’ at the time and may have been a blameless victim of someone else who may have been driving ‘for shopping’ or ‘for hospital appointment’. From the same stats (above) two out of three collisions did not involve someone driving for work. Some individuals are collision-prone, whatever their journey’s purpose.
Hugh Jones,
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