Travelling for business during winter

We’ve all been there: you’re on your way to work and, to your horror, there’s nothing but red lights and standstill traffic ahead, stretching out to the horizon.  

During the winter months and into early spring, it’s likely that travel, particularly by road, will remain hazardous.  

But did you know that travelling for business (excluding commuting) needs to be risk assessed too? So, any time your team goes to meetings, visits customers, or delivers items, you need to be ready.  

Whether your workers are using their own car for business activities, or you’re providing a company vehicle, driving is still classed as a work activity. As an employer, you need to assess the risks and put in place reasonable control measures to keep your workers safe. 

Your risk assessments don’t need to be complex, but they do need to reflect the activities that your workers are undertaking, and the arrangements you have in place to keep them safe.  

Consider hazards such as: 

• Adverse weather: Consider controls such as avoiding travel, remote working options, planning routes ahead of time, and potentially even specialist training if you live in an area with severe weather and poor infrastructure. 

• Driver fitness and fatigue: Do you make sure your workers’ eyes are tested regularly if they drive for work? What are your policies and procedures relating to alcohol and drug use? Do you make sure their working patterns allow for sufficient breaks? And do you schedule their working hours to reduce fatigue? 

• Vehicle condition: If you have fleet vehicles, are they regularly serviced, inspected and competently maintained? If your workers use their own vehicles, do you check they have current MOTs in place? Do workers know what to look out for when conducting safety checks? 

• Emergencies: Do you have first aid kits? Do you instruct workers to keep warm and waterproof clothing in the vehicle, as well as water and food? Have you thought about breakdown cover, plans and policies in place to support workers in the event of an emergency? 

• Lone working: Have you got policies and procedures in place to look after lone workers? Have you considered which people are most at risk when lone working, or the level of risk associated with their activities? 

The items above aren’t exhaustive, but as a Citation customer, you can take advantage of our ready-to-go risk assessment templates on Atlas. Simply log in to the risk assessment area and take a look around!