This is an editable policy template. Driving and road-safety laws vary by jurisdiction — verify current local requirements before adopting this template.
Purpose
This policy sets minimum requirements for employees who drive on company business, aimed at reducing road-traffic risk to drivers, passengers, and the public, and at establishing clear accountability when something goes wrong.
Driver Authorization
Only employees holding a valid, appropriate driving licence for the vehicle class in question may drive on company business. Licence status should be checked at hire and periodically thereafter, not only at the point of hire.
Fitness to Drive
Drivers must not operate a vehicle while fatigued, under the influence of alcohol or drugs — including certain prescription or over-the-counter medication with warning labels — or otherwise unfit to drive safely. Employees should be encouraged to report fitness concerns without fear of retaliation.
Seatbelts
Seatbelts must be worn by the driver and all passengers at all times while the vehicle is in motion, with no exceptions for short trips or familiar routes.
Mobile Phones
Hand-held mobile phone use while driving is prohibited. Hands-free use should be minimized and calls kept brief; texting or using apps while driving is never permitted.
Speed and Weather
Drivers must observe posted speed limits and adjust speed for road, traffic, and weather conditions — posted limits are a maximum, not a target, in poor conditions.
Journey Planning
Journeys should be planned to allow adequate rest breaks, particularly for long-distance travel, and should avoid scheduling that creates unrealistic time pressure likely to encourage unsafe driving.
Vehicle Checks
Drivers should perform basic pre-journey checks — tyres, lights, mirrors, fluid levels — and report any defects before driving rather than after a problem occurs on the road.
Loads
Loads must be secured and kept within the vehicle’s rated capacity; unsecured or overweight loads are a common and preventable cause of loss-of-control incidents.
Reversing
Reversing manoeuvres should be minimized wherever practical. A banksman or spotter should be used where visibility is limited, particularly on active work sites with pedestrian traffic.
Passengers
The number of passengers carried must never exceed the vehicle’s rated seating capacity, regardless of operational pressure.
Incident/Breakdown Procedure
Drivers should know how to respond to a collision or breakdown: securing the scene, warning other traffic, reporting to a designated contact, and completing an incident report promptly while details are fresh.
Monitoring
Where used, the organization may monitor driving-related incidents, licence checks, and vehicle telematics data, in compliance with applicable privacy law and with appropriate employee notice.
Disciplinary Rules
Serious or repeated violations of this policy may result in withdrawal of driving privileges and/or disciplinary action, up to and including termination, consistent with applicable employment law.
Review
This policy should be reviewed periodically and whenever local road-traffic law changes materially, with updates communicated to all affected employees.
Regulatory Context
In the United States, OSHA 29 CFR 1926.35 requires an employee emergency action plan where an OSHA standard requires one, and OSHA 1904 governs recording and reporting of work-related injuries and illnesses that may result from vehicle incidents on company business. Organizations should also confirm applicable state and local traffic law, and any DOT requirements if commercial vehicles are involved.
Common Pitfalls
Driving policies often list rules without explaining consequences, which weakens compliance. Employees are more likely to follow a policy when they understand why a rule exists — for example, that hands-free calling is still a measurable distraction risk, not just a legal workaround for hand-held phone bans. Pairing each rule with its underlying reasoning, briefly, tends to improve real-world adherence.
Implementation Checklist
Before rolling out this policy, confirm which employees actually drive on company business (including occasional drivers, not just those with a company vehicle), verify licence status for each of them, and decide how vehicle checks and incident reports will actually be collected and reviewed — a policy that exists only as a document, with no working reporting mechanism behind it, rarely changes driving behavior on its own.
Communicating the Policy
Employees who drive occasionally — site visits, supply runs, client meetings — are often overlooked in driving-policy communication because they do not think of themselves as “drivers” in a job-title sense. Make clear during induction and periodic refreshers that this policy applies to anyone driving on company business, regardless of how often, and confirm understanding rather than assuming a policy circulated by email was read.
Handling Non-Compliance Fairly
As with any workplace policy, enforcement should be consistent and proportionate. A single missed pre-journey check warrants coaching, not automatic suspension of driving privileges; a pattern of speeding violations, or a serious incident caused by policy non-compliance, warrants a firmer response. Documenting each incident helps ensure decisions are based on pattern and severity rather than inconsistent, case-by-case judgment.
Reviewing Effectiveness
Track incident and near-miss trends related to driving over time, not just in the aftermath of a serious event. If a particular route, time of day, or vehicle type shows a recurring pattern, that is a signal to revisit journey planning or vehicle maintenance schedules rather than treating each incident as an isolated case.
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