A MAJOR investigation into employee safety has revealed that the traditional 48-hour working week is a myth for increasingly stressed-out company car drivers.

Data collected from more than 200 company risk assessments has revealed that many employees are clocking up more than 60 hours a week, if the time spent driving is taken into account.

Yet many employees and employers fail to consider this time when they are looking at the average hours staff have to work.

Executives at Risk Answers, which carried out the research, say the stress of work coupled with other pressures including congestion means that at-work driving risk management should be at the top of every fleet decision-maker's management agenda, while hours should be reconsidered.

Risk Answers' director Jeremy Hay said: 'Travelling and driving, where they are part of the work activity, must be considered as work time and therefore fall within the scope of the Working Time Regulations. However, working time does not include the time spent travelling between home and a worker's normal place of work.

'Under the regulations an employer has a duty to keep records which show whether the 48-hour limit is being complied with in the case of each worker and retain those records for two years.'

All companies should undertake an investigation into the working/driving hours of employees, the company says. A safety audit would result in systems being put in place by businesses to ensure their staff work in accordance with working time regulations, creating a safer and less stressful environment.

Under the 1998 Working Time Regulations employees should not work more than 48 hours per week when averaged over 17 weeks.

They do not apply to 'workers involved in the road transport sector', although this is under review, they do apply to employees who drive or travel as part of their work, says Risk Answers.

Therefore, it adds, the time they spend travelling is considered part of their work activity and must be recorded and monitored.

Figures produced in the RAC Report on Motoring 2003 revealed that 300,000 employees drive more than five business-related hours every day of their working year.