IS IT YOUR DUTY TO CARE? As duty of care becomes a more prominent issue within Australia, it leaves fleet managers wondering how this fits into their daily operations and whether they are potentially exposed to OHS legislation.
D
uty of care involves clarifying
organisation has equipped them with the
straightforward issues when dealt with one
the safety processes and where
knowledge and skills necessary to safely
on one, or with a small fleet, but when
responsibility lies to ensure
operate the vehicle as well as having their
you begin to multiply them and imagine
they are upheld. Organisations
deficiencies identified. This works to ac-
them expanding across a larger fleet, they
have a duty of care to their
curately flag high-risk drivers and allow
can be a headache for fleet managers.
employees and the public alike,
for interventions to be put in place.
which is enforced by various laws and
When working with a fleet, it is important
regulations. Essentially, for fleet managers
To successfully manage these expecta-
to keep a record of damage or maintenance
there are two components to duty of care.
tions, fleet managers must have adequate
issues to vehicles and monitor the state of
One is regarding the vehicles themselves
visibility over their fleets to ensure that
the car for a number of reasons, including
and the other is regarding their drivers.
issues are dealt with in a timely matter and
insurance accountabilities and proactive
don’t turn into larger, reactive problems.
maintenance. However, by having physi-
The procurement and maintenance pro-
14
cal log books for all of this information,
cesses have expectations around them
A lack of visibility
you run into issues around accuracy of
that the best cars and parts are sourced/
There are a few key issues that have the
information and visibility during the life
used for the vehicles in the fleet. This
tendency to turn into large problems
of the vehicle.
is all to ensure the duty of care to the
for fleet managers if they are not dealt
drivers as well as other road users. There
with correctly. Damage to pool vehicles
This is also the case for traffic infringe-
are expectations for the drivers that the
and traffic infringements are relatively
ments. If a driver is accumulating multiple
FSB OCTOBER 2015
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