Public sector fleets are increasingly wrestling with the issue of how to manage a wide variety of drivers using a diverse range of pool and hire vehicles, reports Chevin Fleet Solutions.

The company says that in many organisations, grey fleet usage of vehicles has declined due to risk management issues and that vehicles are instead being provided for drivers on an as-needed basis – but that this practice is also creating duty of care problems.

David Gladding, sales director at Chevin, said: “This is something that was discussed in detail at a recent public sector user group event that we held.

“The range of people who are potentially using everything from small cars to items of plant that fall under the remit of the fleet is very wide in many public sector organisations.

“They could include school leavers with minimal driving experience through to highly qualified specialist drivers who can handle many classes of vehicle.

“Coming up with policies to decide who can drive what in which conditions requires very detailed analysis in risk management terms as well as an effective administration system to ensure that it is properly implemented. This is where the use of fleet software to manage the situation was discussed.”

The situation, Gladding said, was complicated by the large and increasing numbers of people in the public sector working on a part time, contract or shift basis.

He said: “It can be difficult to manage the allocation of a vehicle to a driver if it happens at 6am in the morning.

“Putting in place systems to minimise the chances of risk management errors being made is something we are currently working on with a number of our public sector fleet software users.”