COVID-19 Transport Toolkit
We are here to help by sharing reliable, practical information.
DfBB in partnership with FleetCheck
Free Van Driver Toolkit
Working with the National Highways Commercial Vehicle Incident Prevention Team, we have produced a free toolkit for van drivers – containing driver information cards to assist van drivers and fleet operators in dispelling uncertainty and myth.
They’ll help you implement best practice to reduce costs, improve operating conditions and ensure safe and legal vehicles – and, importantly, driver wellbeing.
COVID-19 Transport Toolkit Playlist
Driving for Better Business, and strategic partner FleetCheck, have collaborated on a series of short videos to help fleet operators and business owners navigate these new challenges.
Watch the full playlist here
Uncertain Times
Over this challenging time, we have all begun to live and work in a very different place. Driving for Better Business, and strategic partner FleetCheck, have collaborated on a series of short videos to help fleet operators and business owners navigate these new challenges.
For those of you responsible for managing company vehicles, and with people who drive for work, there are many new challenges to navigate. None of us know for sure how long the disruption due to COVID-19 is going to last or, when we start to come out of it, what the new ‘normal’ is going to look like.
What we do know is that many of you are looking for support. Our aim with this series of videos and additional resources is to help fleet operators and business owners try to make sense of some of those challenges. We hope to share valuable insights, and help you prepare for the eventual return to more usual operational levels.
We have to remain positive, deal with the challenges we face as best we can, and prepare ourselves properly for a world which won’t look the same as it did before. This is our contribution to supporting businesses around the UK that are vital to the UK economy.
Essential Drivers
Many business offering essential services are now operating at, or even above, maximum capacity. While there are currently temporary relaxations of regulations in areas such as drivers’ hours, this does not reduce your duty of care responsibilities to manage work-related road risk. In this video we look at the challenges around maintaining safety critical policies such as the management of driver fatigue as well as issues around driver recruitment, driver eligibility and sanitisation where multiple employees may be using the same vehicle.
Non-Essential Drivers
While those who can are now working from home leading to a massive increase in lone working, we’ve also seen many businesses with non-essential staff, including many van drivers, furloughing staff who are now sat at home wondering what the future holds. Managing mental health will be a major issue for all employers whether their staff are working from home, furloughed or still operational. We also look at some the financial challenges for non-essential drivers including the tax implications on company cars that are currently unable to be used.
Business Continuity
The primary concern of any business currently is maintaining customer relationships and keeping the business as financially sound as possible. In this video we look at different ways of maintaining positive cashflow such as the Governments job retention scheme, VAT deferral and supplier payment holidays. We also address the opportunity to focus on fleet efficiency so that you can strip out unnecessary operational costs and return to work in a strong position.
Vehicle Maintenance
A combination of lack of engineers due to self-isolation, and the closing of many garages means there is a serious lack of capacity to keep up with vehicle maintenance requirements. The temporary suspension of MOTs and maintenance schedules is meant to help keep vital business operational however you are still absolutely required to ensure your vehicles are roadworthy at all times – something the Traffic Commissioners and Health and Safety Executive have explicitly reinforced. In this video, we discuss the challenges of maintaining an operational fleet, managing mileage, and the implications of mothballing non-essential vehicles.
Fleet Admin & Housekeeping
If your fleet is classed as essential then you may be extremely stretched and feeling you aren’t able to focus everything as much as you would like but we can’t stress enough the importance of ensuring all your staff, and especially any new recruits, follow established policies – and now more than ever. This is highlighted by the recent successful prosecution of a business for a fatal accident following its failure to follow its own fatigue management policies. If you’re running a non-essential fleet, you may find this is an opportune time to start developing stronger procedures that build additional efficiency and resilience into your fleet management before we all return to work.
Back to ‘Normal’
Most seem to agree that ‘normal’ won’t look like it did before and elements of the fleet and transport world will have changed forever. The fast adoption of online meetings may, for instance, mean managing much lower car mileage in future. In this final overview video, we discuss some of the key issues fleet and transport managers will have to address over the coming months such as the extensive checks required before reinstating mothballed vehicles, important considerations when bringing back furloughed drivers, and why the backlog in vehicle maintenance will cause significant problems for some time to come.
Vehicle Management
Driving for Better Business Campaign Manager Simon Turner and Peter Golding, Founder and MD of FleetCheck talk to Steve Bridge (Managing Director of Mercedes-Benz Vans UK) and Mark Cartwright (Head of Commercial Vehicle Incident Prevention at Highways England) about some of the tricky challenges fleets are having to face while managing COVID-19 coronavirus.
Among the challenges discussed are:
- Roadworthiness of Essential Vehicles
- Vehicle Sanitisation
- Management and Record Keeping
- Back to ‘Normal’
Driver Fatigue & Drugs
Driving for Better Business Campaign Manager Simon Turner and Peter Golding, Founder and MD of FleetCheck talk to Paul Jackson (Director of Fresh Air Training, Chartered Psychologist and Impairment Specialist) and Ean Lewin (Managing Director of D.Tec International) about the issue of driver fatigue and drugs.
Driver Competence
Simon Turner, Campaign Manager of Driving for Better Business, and Peter Golding, Founder and MD of FleetCheck, talk to Carly Brookfield and Howard Redwood of the Driving Instructors Association.
Among the challenges discussed are:
- Can any driver training happen during lockdown?
- How do instructors deal with social distancing
- Driver CPC backlog looming
- Driver recruitment and induction during lockdown
- What might get missed?
- Catching up after lockdown
- The new normal
- What will furloughed drivers come back to?
- Anxiety and driver wellbeing
Re-engaging Staff Who Drive for Work
This presentation by Simon Turner, Campaign Manager of Driving for Better Business, is about re-engaging staff who drive for work after the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions are lifted. We’re going to look at 10 ways to help you minimise risk, and strengthen the business for the future.