A LEADING fleet has introduced initiatives to keep staff safe on the road, including linking end-of-year pay bonuses for managers and drivers to whether they have carried out regular vehicle checks.

Life sciences specialist DSM UK, based at Redditch in Worcestershire, which has a 27-vehicle fleet, says drivers must check their cars daily for items such as oil and water levels and tyre condition.

Each month or every 3,000 miles they must carry out a more thorough safety check, including lights, windscreen, windscreen wipers, tyre pressures and tyre tread depth.

Drivers then record their findings in a special log which acts as an audit trail and as a safety record when the vehicle is sold, which can also help improve residual values.

Drivers must update their logs, as managers can request to see them at any time. Drivers' bonuses are linked to their accurate recording.

The company is owned by Netherlands-based life sciences company DSM NV, formerly Dutch State Mines, which has 22,000 employees worldwide. It has used Peak Performance Management for its driver training and risk assessment requirements in the UK.

DSM UK business support manager Paul Chancellor, whose responsibilities include fleet and health and safety, said extra safety initiatives were essential now that service intervals have been extended on modern cars.

He said: 'The regulations make it essential that companies regularly carry out safety checks on any equipment they provide for employees to use, otherwise managers can be liable.'

Peak Performance Management says that under the Provisions and Use of Work Equipment Regulations of 1998, a company has an absolute duty to ensure any piece of work equipment, including company cars, is fit for purpose and safe for use.

It claims that without any change in the law, any equipment that fails for safety reasons could lead to prosecution for company managers, making safety checking of vehicles of paramount importance.

Peak Performance Management managing director James Sutherland said: 'We recently carried out a survey which found that 34% of cars provided by employers for driver training had faults of some description.

'So additional safety initiatives like those carried out by DSM UK are not only common sense but are essential in the light of extended service intervals on vehicles and current health and safety regulations.'

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