Protecting people on the move
The UK's number one supplier of Driver Licence validation services
Our Grey Fleet (Owner drivers) Management ensures your drivers using their own vehicles are subject to regular unobtrusive compliance checking as recommended by the Health and Safety at Work Act.
The questions you need to ask are:
Causes or permits individuals to drive their own vehicle, not owned or provided by the employer, on their behalf and reimburses the expenses for doing so. OR Causes or permits individuals in their employ to drive on their behalf by the provision of cash in lieu of a vehicle to individuals who then drive a privately owned vehicle on behalf of the employer.
Is provided by highly trained and skilled members of our driver document verification team and the Driver Vehicle Standard Agency (DVSA).
The driver simply completes a declaration and then supplies us with a copy of their Insurance Certificate. Our dedicated verification team then review and report accordingly.
This simple process makes this protracted task manageable with straight forward exception reporting.
If you’re employing owner drivers you need to ensure their MOTs are valid. You are legally responsible for them.
Licence Bureau ensures all your drivers’ MOTs are valid as we confirm first registration dates as well as current MOT’s with the DVSA database.
If you’d like discuss reducing the risks, costs and hassle of managing your drivers please contact us today.
Is delivered by the completion of a self declaration document and provides a history trail of service intervals and mileage. Optional is the inclusion of vehicle excise duty (VED) and driver health question.
For owner drivers also known as Grey Fleet (Owner drivers), Licence Bureau can check drivers licence status online so reducing risk, cost and hassle when managing your drivers please contact us today.
Key Features of Grey Fleet (Owner drivers) Services:
Ensuring the drivers’ VED are correct ensures compliance. Licence Bureau ensures all your drivers’ VEDs are valid against UK records.
What Is Grey Fleet (Owner drivers)?
‘Grey Fleet’ is a term used to describe the business miles travelled by an employee in their own vehicle. This ‘fleet’ of employee‐owned cars is deemed ‘grey’ as the vehicles in use are in somewhat of a grey area of responsibility for the employer; these responsibilities are often overlooked and misunderstood. In the UK, employees travel more than 12 billion miles in grey fleet vehicles each year at a cost of around £5.5 billion.
Grey Fleet (Owner drivers) employees spend over 110,000 hours a year driving in cars whose age, condition and fitness for purpose are not controlled by the company. This large number is of concern to many organisations with a grey fleet due to worries over environmental sustainability, financial efficiency and the health and safety of their staff.
What is the law?
Health and Safety – Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, employers have a duty to ensure the health, safety and welfare at work, including whilst driving for work, of their employees. This is relevant in relation to grey fleet vehicles as this statutory duty would apply when employees are undertaking driving for work in their own vehicles. You as an employer are required to ensure that your employees have a safe working environment and this extends to any vehicle driven at work.
You have the same duty of care towards grey fleet drivers as to other drivers, i.e. to ensure that:
When private cars are used for business purposes, they must meet or exceed your policy requirements for:
Moreover, the Health and Safety Executive in September 2021, deliberately decided to update their written guidance to include the grey fleet drivers, employees who drive their own, or a hire, vehicle for work purposes and gig-economy drivers.
The purpose of that change in guidance is to ensure that all employers risk-manage their grey fleet drivers and vehicles in the same way as they currently do with drivers of company-owned or leased vehicles.
The guidance is crystal clear; action must be taken.
The consequences of not including any grey fleet drivers and vehicles in any compliance or fleet risk programme are significant for an organisation.
If there is a severe incident involving one of these drivers, the H&S Executive would examine the driving policies, risk management procedures and audit trails in the same way as if the vehicle was a “company” one.
As the H&S fines have been linked to company turnover since 2016, a collision involving a grey fleet driver could be significant. Today, penalties of over £1m are not uncommon for driving-related incidents.
What insurance cover do grey fleet (Owner drivers) drivers need?
The Certificate of Insurance is the document that confirms the level of insurance cover purchased. Read the Certificate and the small print carefully to ensure your cover is as expected. Other documents such as a Schedule or Policy Document are not proof of cover the driver must always produce the Certificate. The Certificate will tell you who is covered – e.g. policyholder and spouse; it will also tell you what circumstances are covered – e.g. Social Domestic and Pleasure, or driving to and from a permanent place of work. In order to be covered for your business travel, the Certificate must specify this – if you are not sure, you must check with your insurer. Also remember the types of journeys conducted that your insurer may deem to be business, for example paying a brief visit to another location to conduct a task for business.
What is an example of a business journey?
Driving to a client site, an airport prior to a business trip or to a railway station for an annual conference, as well as travelling between different work locations are all classed as driving for work and do not form part of the daily journey to work. Non‐work travel and the normal daily commute are classed as social domestic and pleasure commuting. If a vehicle is driven in connection with work beyond simply commuting then it is classed as being used for business use and the correct level of business use insurance cover must be held.
What information do I need to manage?
You must make sure that all your grey fleet vehicles are properly serviced, maintained and insured for business use. Before any privately-owned vehicle is used for company business, its owner must provide:
It is also important to keep good records that relate to your grey fleet. You should keep these documents on file and then request replacements. If they lapse, or if the vehicle is changed, it is the driver’s responsibility to provide updated documentation.
How do I manage “Cash allowance” vs grey fleet owner drivers?
A problem that clients can have is the identification of “cash allowance” vs owner drivers when a business mile is made.
Cash allowance drivers receive a lump sum (perk) instead of a company car. Internally they might not be classified as an owner driver (driving a business mile) because their job role doesn’t always say they are required to drive on business. However on occasions they may periodically jump into their “cash allowance” car and drive to a meeting etc.
Owners drivers are more normally “business mile” drivers as they are employed as business drivers but do not get a cash allowance, these claim mileage etc. each month. These are easier to identify as they are in the system as claiming vehicles expenses because they drive a business mile.
The issue for clients is identifying “cash allowance” drivers who sometimes drive on business but do not always claim mileage etc.
Licence Bureau’s grey fleet service will provide all of the above and will help:-
Reduce risk : Keeps you compliant with your legal obligations and helps protect against fines. Save time and resource : Letting us do the work minimises the hassle in finding alternative resource within your own company. Gain peace of mind : You can rest assured that this often overlooked area of your responsibilities is covered and you have an audit trail available should you need it. To control information : Our online portal enables you to be kept fully up-to-date and informed. It also gives you control over the alerts that you want to set up.
