Driving for work

Driving for work risk assessment template

A plain template you can copy and adapt to assess the risks when staff drive vans, cars or their own vehicles for work. It follows HSE's three headings (the journey, the driver and the vehicle) and leaves room for your own findings, actions and review date.

By VCT · Published 14 October 2026 · 9 min read

What HSE expects

HSE's guidance on driving and riding for work says employers must manage the health and safety risks to workers who drive or ride for work. Health and safety law applies on the road as it does on a fixed site. It covers company vehicles and grey fleet, which HSE describes as privately owned vehicles that workers drive for business, including cars used under a cash allowance scheme.

A risk assessment is the starting point. HSE names three main areas to look at: the journey, the driver or rider, and the vehicle. The hazards it lists include roadworks, traffic and congestion, the condition of the vehicle, fatigue and distraction, time pressures, weather and the behaviour of other road users. It also asks you to think about lone workers and other vulnerable workers, and to consider whether drivers can get to suitable welfare facilities.

HSE's general guidance on managing risk sets out the minimum under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999:

  • identify what could cause injury or illness in your business (the hazards)
  • decide how likely it is that someone could be harmed, and how seriously (the risk)
  • remove the hazard, or where that isn't possible, control the risk

HSE adds that you must do what is reasonably practicable to protect people. You are not expected to remove every risk.

You must also consult your workers about health and safety. HSE suggests involving employees because they will usually have good ideas. Drivers know which routes, delivery slots and vehicles cause trouble.

HSE says commuting is generally not driving for work, unless the journey is from home to a work location other than the worker's normal place of work.

Recording your findings

HSE's page on the steps needed to manage risk says that if you employ 5 or more people, you must record your significant findings. That means the hazards, who might be harmed and how, and what you are doing to control the risks.

HSE's risk assessment template page describes a simple record that also covers what further action you need to take, who needs to carry it out and when it is needed by. HSE says you can use a template to keep this record, so the format is up to you. The template below follows the same pattern, grouped under HSE's three driving headings.

If you employ fewer than 5 people, a written record is still the easiest way to show what you checked and what you decided.

Before you use the template

HSE warns that copying an example and putting your company name on it would not satisfy the law. You must think about the specific hazards and controls your own business needs. Treat the template as a set of prompts. Delete lines that don't apply, add the hazards you find, and replace every [square bracket] with your own answer.

Talk the draft through with drivers and their managers before you sign it off. If staff use their own cars for work, use it alongside our grey fleet policy template. This guide and template are general guidance, not legal advice.

The template

Copy the text below into your own document and edit it.

[Company name] risk assessment: driving for work
Assessed by [name and role] · Date [date] · Workers consulted [names, roles or team] · Next review [date]

1. What this assessment covers

  • Vehicles: [number] company vans, [number] company cars, [number] staff cars used for work (grey fleet), [any pool or hire vehicles]
  • Drivers: [roles or teams who drive for work, and whether contractors or agency workers are included]
  • Typical work: [for example delivery rounds, site visits, visits to clients' homes]
  • Commuting between home and a normal place of work is not usually driving for work. Journeys from home to another work location are included.

2. The journey

  • Is the journey needed: [which journeys could be replaced by a call, a video meeting or other transport]
  • Routes: [main routes and areas, roads unsuitable for the vehicle, low bridges or other restrictions, sites with poor parking or access]
  • Schedules: [are journey times realistic within speed limits, allowing for traffic, loading and breaks; do time slots or apps put pressure on drivers]
  • Length and timing: [long journeys, long working days, driving in the dark, driving between 2am and 6am or between 2pm and 4pm]
  • Breaks and welfare: [where drivers can stop, rest and use toilets]
  • Weather: [snow, ice, high winds, and who can decide a journey should not go ahead]
  • Lone working: [who drives alone, and how they keep in touch]

3. The driver

  • Licence: [right licence for each vehicle; how and how often you check it]
  • Competence and training: [induction, who needs further training, when training needs were last reviewed]
  • Health: [eyesight, medical conditions, medication that may affect driving, and how drivers tell you]
  • Fatigue: [shift patterns, long or irregular hours, driving home after a long shift]
  • Distraction: [phones, hands-free equipment, navigation and job apps]
  • Drink and drugs: [your rules, including prescription medicines that affect driving]
  • Vehicle knowledge: [does each driver know the vehicle's height, laden and empty, and how to load it]
  • Seating and posture: [seat set-up on long drives]

4. The vehicle

  • Fit for the job: [right vehicle for the work and loads; safety features such as reversing cameras, sensors or bulkheads]
  • Maintenance: [servicing in line with the manufacturer's recommendations; who books it; where records are kept]
  • Daily checks: [walkaround checks before use and how they are recorded]
  • Defects: [how drivers report defects, who fixes them and how quickly; the rule that unsafe vehicles are not driven]
  • Documents: [MOT, road tax and insurance; how you know each is current]
  • Loads: [payload limits, load securing, equipment carried]
  • Grey fleet: [how staff cars are checked for MOT, tax, business insurance, servicing and condition]

5. Who could be harmed and how

  • Drivers and passengers: [for example injury in a collision, tiredness, strain from loading or poor seating]
  • Other road users: [pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and other drivers]
  • People at work locations: [customers, site workers or the public when parking, reversing or unloading]
  • Workers at particular risk: [new or young drivers, lone workers, anyone with a health condition]

6. Controls already in place

  • The journey: [for example "schedules allow a 15-minute break every two hours"]
  • The driver: [for example "licences checked before first drive and every [period]"]
  • The vehicle: [for example "walkaround check before every shift; red items stop the vehicle"]
  • Incidents: [how drivers report road incidents and near misses, and who investigates them]

7. Further action needed

ActionWhoBy whenDone
[action][name][date][date]
[action][name][date][date]
[action][name][date][date]

8. Review

  • Next review date: [date]
  • Review sooner if: controls may no longer be working; there are changes such as new vehicles, routes or shift patterns; workers raise problems; or there is an incident or near miss.
  • Review history: [date] · [name] · [what changed]

Approved by: ____________   Role: ____________
Signature: ____________   Date: ____________

Filling it in

List your vehicles and the people who drive them, then work through each heading. HSE suggests looking at your accident and ill health records when you identify hazards. Defect reports and near misses tell you a lot too.

For each hazard, ask first whether you can remove it. HSE's guidance on planning journeys starts by asking whether the journey is needed at all. Where you can't remove a hazard, write down the control that keeps the risk low, and be specific. "Drivers take breaks" is hard to check. "Schedules include a 15-minute break every two hours, as the Highway Code recommends" can be checked against real rounds.

  • The journey. HSE says journey times should allow safe driving within the speed limit. Sleep-related incidents are most likely between 2am and 6am and between 2pm and 4pm, and drivers should not be pressured to travel in exceptionally difficult weather.
  • The driver. HSE's page on safe drivers asks you to assess competence, make sure licences, insurance and MOTs are legal and up to date, and train workers at no cost to them. Its page on workers' health covers eyesight, medication, fatigue and seating. See also our guide to driving licence checks for employers.
  • The vehicle. HSE's page on safe work vehicles expects maintenance in line with the manufacturer's recommendations, recorded daily checks, defects put right promptly and a clear rule that unsafe vehicles are not driven. It warns against overloading vans. Our van walkaround checklist, defect report guide and guide to how often a van should be serviced go into more detail.

Reviewing the assessment

HSE says you must review the controls you have put in place to make sure they are working. It also says to review them if they may no longer be effective, if changes could bring new risks, if workers have spotted problems, or after accidents or near misses.

HSE's journey guidance asks employers to set up a way for workers to report all work-related road incidents and near misses, and to investigate them to find the root causes.

HSE does not set a fixed review interval on the pages we checked. Put a date in the template anyway, so the review doesn't slip, and bring it forward when something changes.

Where VCT fits

The risk assessment is your document, and VCT won't write it for you. It can hold the records behind several of the vehicle and driver controls:

  • Daily walkaround checks on drivers' phones. Red or amber items go straight to the office with the driver's note.
  • A defect work queue. Every red or amber item gets an owner, and a defect only clears when a later check marks the same item green.
  • MOT and road tax checked every night with DVSA and DVLA, with reminder emails before they run out.
  • Staff cars used for work next to company vehicles, with business insurance expiry shown.
  • Licence checks and consent recorded, with DVLA check codes shared from the driver app and a view of when checks are due. Automatic licence checking with DVLA is coming soon.
  • Service records and costs on each vehicle.
  • A compliance pack PDF with inspections, defects, MOT tests, services and costs for a chosen period.

Whether your controls are enough is a judgement for you and your drivers.

Sources

Checked on 14 October 2026. This guide and template are general information, not legal advice.

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