Following a recent court case which saw a business fined under the Corporate Manslaughter Act , Uneedus urge companies to take sufficient steps when it comes to staff travelling for business.
The Corporate Manslaughter Act is a government legislation which states that companies can be held accountable and found guilty as a result of management failures, considered as a serious breach of a duty of care within the business. Despite the legislation coming into effect in April 2008, research carried out by professional transport service Uneedus has found that many local small to medium sized businesses are either not aware that this Act includes business travel or do not understand the full consequences of failing to comply.
Every week around 200 road deaths and serious injuries involves someone at work. Many businesses which do not have the appropriate structures in place, such as business travel insurance, are at risk of being fined up to 112% of their annual turnover or face being incarcerated for manslaughter charges.
However, there is plenty of support available to guide companies through the latest business travel law regulations. Uneedus are one such business. Based in Christchurch, Dorset, Uneedus specialise in making sure businesses in the surrounding areas are aware what a business needs to have in place if ever there were an accident.
Brian Thompson from Uneedus Business Solutions, who has over 29 years’ experience in road and vehicle safety including working with Hampshire Constabulary, has said:
“We continue to be shocked that there are many SMES still driving around without business travel insurance and are not aware of the potential impact of this. No business is exempt from the Corporate Manslaughter Act. This even includes small businesses using their cars to travel to client meetings.”
Uneedus have explained that the term fleet is in itself often misleading, most business owners see it as a large number of cars, vans or trucks nicely sign written and out on the road all day, every day. This is not the case. A company’s fleet is made up of any vehicles that will carry-out on road activities for their business. Even vehicles owned by employees, whilst they are being used for business activities, are effectively company vehicles and fall under the same legislation.
In order to help businesses to ensure they have the correct measures in place, Uneedus have introduced a free company Driver and Vehicle compliance survey.
Brian Thompson said:
“It’s our aim to save companies from the horror of ever having to face business damaging fines or worse. We hope that our free survey will provide small to medium companies with some useful initial help at no cost to them.”
Find out more about how the Corporate Manslaughter Act may affect your business and contact Uneedus for a free Driver and Vehicle compliance survey at: www.uneedusbusinesssolutions.com/
