A new toolkit for your drivers and what our SG30 guidance says
Materials have to get to site and back. Whether that means a fleet of wagons, a couple of vans or haulage hired in, road risk is one of the biggest exposures a scaffolding contractor carries, and one of the easiest to let slide when site demands take over.
A new toolkit, free to download
Driving for Better Business, the National Highways programme, launched its new Truck Driver Toolkit last week, developed in conjunction with Transport for West Midlands.
It focuses on safety and risk management, and joins the existing Van and Car Driver Toolkits, so most scaffolding fleets will find something that fits whatever they are running. The whole family of guidance is free to download here.
What NASC guidance says
SG30:25 Management of Road Transport is NASC’s own guidance on this and it covers operator licensing, competency, driver responsibilities, working from vehicles, load securing, on-site vehicle movement, digital tachographs, and theft and terrorism prevention. The appendices also include templates for defect reports, inspection records, maintenance planning and job descriptions.
It is free to NASC members and available to purchase for non-members.
The risks it addresses are real. Health and Safety Executive figures show around 50 people are killed and more than 5,000 injured each year in accidents involving workplace transport, with the most common causes being people struck by or falling from vehicles, objects falling from vehicles, and vehicles overturning.
For scaffolding specifically, the pressure points are familiar: loads that are long, heavy and irregular and can shift in transit; time pressure and fatigue across long days and multiple sites; daily walkaround checks squeezed when the schedule tightens; and, in smaller firms without dedicated fleet management, no formal road risk management at all.
The legal position is not complicated. A vehicle must be safe and roadworthy at all times, and responsibility is shared between the driver and the operator. It is not one or the other.
As Driving for Better Business puts it, roadworthiness is not a seasonal choice. It is a standing commitment, and making it a priority protects your drivers and everyone else on the road.
Take the survey
Driving for Better Business is running a short survey with one of its partners on attitudes towards drug and alcohol impairment among employers who manage staff that drive for work. It takes under five minutes, and the results will help shape how government and safety organisations support businesses to keep employees safe.
