Employees driving personal vehicles: what you need to know
Whether it’s travelling to a meeting, visiting clients, or making deliveries, it’s commonplace for businesses to allow employees to use their private vehicles for work purposes. Health and safety guidelines outline that an employer who allows private vehicle use needs to properly manage possible risks as part of their health and safety practices and to avoid breaching legislative requirements.
If your business allows employees to drive personal vehicles for work purposes, there are risks to be aware of and duties you need to consider.
Can employees drive their own cars for work?
The short answer is yes, an employee can drive their own car for work-related purposes. However, if a business allows employees to drive personal vehicles for work purposes, they need to ensure they’ve properly considered all the risks and put policies in place around things like reimbursements, traffic accidents and safe driving practices.
When would employees drive personal vehicles for work?
There are many reasons why a business may allow employees to drive personal vehicles for work purposes.
If your business regularly conducts off-site meetings, this can provide a convenient way for your employees to travel to and from these meetings. If your employees need to make deliveries and they have an appropriate-sized vehicle, this can be easier than hiring other transport options or outsourcing delivery. Employees might need to regularly visit clients at their home, office, or other important locations, and allowing them to use their own vehicle may be easier than constantly arranging a company car.
Safety risks of driving personal vehicles for work
While allowing your employees to drive their personal vehicles for work can make things much more convenient, there are also a number of common risks that your business can face in doing so. Being aware of the legal and safety risks is important to ensuring you and your employees are protected.
Distracted driving
It’s very easy for drivers to become distracted on the road. Whether it’s the radio, navigating maps, other people in the car, or things happening outside, being distracted by any of these factors can easily cause road incidents.
Driver fatigue
Whether someone has been driving for too long or didn’t get enough sleep the night before, driver fatigue is another very common risk factor that can cause incidents on our roads.
Workers Compensation Claims
If your employee is injured in any way while driving their own vehicle for work purposes, they may have the right to worker’s compensation. While these policies help protect employees unable to work due to injury, they can be costly to a business.
Auto liability
If your employee is involved in a road incident while driving their own vehicle for work purposes and that vehicle becomes damaged, there is the potential that your business may need to cover costs associated with repairing or replacing that vehicle.
Know your duties as an employer
If you’re going to allow your employees to drive their own personal vehicles for work purposes, there are duties and responsibilities as an employer that you need to be aware of and ensure you cover to keep both you and your employees protected.
Support work health and safety
Under the Work Health & Safety Act 2011, an employer is required to provide all their employees with a workplace that is safe and free from risks. This includes when an employee is driving their personal vehicle for work purposes. While the exact duties of an employer in this area aren’t made expressly clear, ensuring your business covers these scenarios in your health and safety policies is important to ensure employees are safe and avoid liability.
Reimburse travel expenses
Various Enterprise Agreements or Awards may outline how the reimbursement of travel expenses when using private vehicles is to be handled so make sure you’re aware of any obligations. If your Agreement or Award doesn’t state any policies on reimbursement, the Australian Tax Office offers information around monetary rates for each kilometre travelled based on the size of the vehicle that you can utilise when compiling your own policies.
Check the driver’s licence and vehicle documents
If you’re allowing employees to drive their own vehicles for work-related purposes, make sure to check and have a copy of a current valid driver’s licence on file. You can find more information about how to properly check an employee’s driving licence and ensure it’s valid here.
It’s also important that any vehicle an employee intends to use for work-related driving has been properly maintained, is safe and fit for purpose, and conforms to road traffic laws. Make sure to have copies of insurance, registration, and regular safety check reports on file for all vehicles that might be used.
Implement a driving policy
Having a company driving policy in place is important for ensuring your business and all employees driving any vehicles for work purposes are covered. As part of your policy, having a section about driving personal vehicles and all requirements and responsibilities around using these vehicles for work-related purposes can help mitigate any risks to your business and your employees while they’re on the road. This may include the expectations employees are to follow, rules around using devices like mobile phones while driving and what happens in the case of a road incident. If you’d like more information about how to compile a comprehensive driving policy for your business, click here.
Keep clear and detailed records
Make sure to keep thorough records of any employee using a personal vehicle for work. Things like fuel costs, logging kilometres, and other relevant expenses and information can be crucial to have on hand in the event of a road incident or any other disputes, such as those involving reimbursement.
When to consider a company vehicle
While at times it can seem more convenient to allow employees to use their own vehicle for work-related purposes, it may be worth considering whether it’s more practical for your business to provide a company vehicle for employees to use instead. Having a company vehicle can help to minimise legal and safety risks, but there are additional costs to consider such as insurance, initial purchase price, and ongoing maintenance.
Discover more with the Drive It Home road safety program
If your business allows employees to use their personal vehicles for work-related purposes, make sure you’re completely aware of the risks and your responsibilities to keep both your business and your employees protected.
At Road Sense Australia, we’re passionate about reducing the impact of road trauma on our communities. If you want to further improve the safety of your employees whether they’re using work or personal vehicles, consider our Drive It Home program. This virtual interactive course offers essential lessons to enhance employee knowledge and understanding of road safety principles and is a great inclusion for your company’s work health and safety package.
