Hitachi Capital backs annual staff vehicle health check

Hitachi Capital Vehicle Solutions is urging businesses to roll up their sleeves and follow its lead in implementing annual staff vehicle health check days to ensure they meet duty of care requirements.

The second Hitachi Capital health check day was designed to highlight the importance of regular vehicle safety checks, as part of the company’s own duty of care policy.

The main problem areas were damaged windscreens, with 27% of the vehicles registering with this fault, while over a third of those checked had low levels of washer fluid.

The event also highlighted that improvements had been made with regards to Hitachi Capital’s grey fleet. The previous vehicle health check day found that 88% of grey fleet vehicles needed attention of some kind.

The recent event showed that grey fleet safety awareness had improved, with 30% of vehicles checked receiving no advice. Grey fleet drivers, whose vehicles did register with tyre or glass problems, were offered discounts on the work required.

“Like any company, we have a legal responsibility to the safety of our staff and we take this very seriously,” said Simon Oliphant, chief executive at Hitachi Capital Vehicle Solutions.

“As such we have a rigorous duty of care policy in place, which involves the annual staff vehicle health check days. Through these events we want to set the benchmark for what other companies should be doing, and lead by example.”

Hitachi Capital is encouraging companies to tackle the issue head-on, by organising their own annual car check day to ensure that they are meeting their duty of care responsibility and encouraging staff to carry out regular basic checks of fluid levels, lights, wipers, tyres and glass.