Driving for Work: Managing Occupational Road Risk Under Health and Safety Law

Driving is, statistically, one of the most dangerous activities many employees do as part of their job, yet it's routinely left out of workplace risk assessment because it doesn't look like a conventional workplace hazard. There's no fixed premises, no obvious plant or equipment, and the employer isn't physically present to observe what's happening. None of that removes the legal duty. Where driving is undertaken as part of someone's job, the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 apply to that driving in the same way they apply to any other work activity.

What counts as "driving for work"?

Driving for work covers anyone who drives, rides, or is a passenger on the road as part of their working time — this includes employees driving company-owned or leased vehicles, employees using their own vehicle for work journeys (sometimes called the "grey fleet"), and increasingly, workers engaged on a gig or dependent-contractor basis who drive as the core of their role, such as delivery drivers. Ordinary commuting between home and a fixed workplace is generally treated differently and typically falls outside the scope of occupational road risk management, but a journey from home directly to a client site, or between multiple work locations during the day, does count as driving for work.

The three-part risk assessment: Journey, Driver, Vehicle

HSE's established approach to managing occupational road risk breaks the assessment into three linked areas:

• Journey. Are routes, schedules, and time allowances realistic? Journey planning that builds in unrealistic timings creates pressure to speed, skip breaks, or drive when fatigued — a scheduling decision made in an office can directly create risk on the road hours later.
• Driver. Is the person competent, appropriately licensed, fit to drive, and not being asked to drive for excessive hours or while fatigued or unwell? This includes checking driving licences are valid and appropriate for the vehicle being driven, and giving genuine consideration to hours worked before a driving task, not just hours driven.
• Vehicle. Is the vehicle fit for purpose, roadworthy, and properly maintained, including for employee-owned vehicles used for work? An employer cannot simply assume a grey-fleet vehicle is roadworthy because it's the employee's own car — there's still a duty to have a process for checking this.

All three elements interact — a competent driver in a well-maintained vehicle can still be placed at risk by a journey schedule that leaves no realistic allowance for rest, weather, or traffic conditions.

Grey fleet and gig-economy drivers: the coverage gap that catches employers out

The area most likely to be under-managed is not the company car fleet — which tends to have obvious, visible processes like scheduled servicing and fleet insurance — but employee-owned vehicles used occasionally for work, and drivers engaged on gig or dependent-contractor terms rather than as direct employees. The health and safety duty does not disappear because a vehicle is privately owned or because a worker is engaged on a flexible contractual basis rather than as a traditional employee; where driving is being carried out as part of work, the duty to manage that risk still applies. Employers who have a clear policy and checking process for the company fleet, but nothing equivalent for staff who occasionally use their own car for a work trip, or contract drivers on flexible engagement terms, have a genuine gap rather than a minor administrative oversight.

Practical steps that close this gap include requiring evidence of a valid licence, MOT, and appropriate insurance (specifically covering business use, which a standard personal policy often excludes) before an employee is authorised to drive their own vehicle for work, and applying the same journey and fitness-to-drive considerations to gig or contract drivers as to direct employees performing the same driving task.

Occupational road risk sits alongside other environments where employers manage risk to people who aren't under constant direct supervision, similar in principle to lone working risk management — both require a system that works without a manager physically present to catch problems as they happen.

Frequently asked questions

Does health and safety law apply to an employee's daily commute?

Generally, ordinary commuting between home and a fixed workplace falls outside occupational road risk management, but journeys made as part of the working day — between sites, or from home to a client visit rather than a fixed base — are treated as driving for work.

Are employers responsible for the safety of an employee's own car used for work?

Yes. Where an employee uses their own vehicle for work journeys, the employer still has a duty to have a process for checking the vehicle is roadworthy, appropriately insured for business use, and that the driver holds a valid, appropriate licence.

Does the driving-for-work duty apply to gig-economy or contract drivers?

Where driving is being carried out as part of a work activity, the duty to manage that risk applies regardless of whether the individual is a direct employee or engaged on gig or dependent-contractor terms.

Driving for work is easy to overlook precisely because it happens away from any fixed premises, but the legal duty to manage it is no different from the duty owed on-site — and the gap most worth closing is usually the grey fleet and flexible-contract drivers, not the company car scheme that already has visible processes in place. Learnsignal's CPD courses cover UK workplace health and safety compliance across physical and operational risk categories.