Businesses are leaving themselves open to the risk of prosecution and the prospect of unlimited fines or even imprisonment, because they are failing to properly discharge the duty-of-care they owe to their at-work drivers.

A survey of 10,000 at-work drivers undertaken by Matrix Global Services, through its ‘Driving Risk Manager’ service, found that 40% of at-work drivers have never seen their company’s driver handbook.

In addition, more than one-in-five (21.6%) of private vehicle drivers did not have the correct business-use insurance and nearly one-in-twenty (4.8%) have a medical condition that should have been reported to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA).

“This survey is a wake-up call to employers to think about how they manage work related road risk,” explained Michael Appleby, a health and safety specialist lawyer at Housemans in London.

“Many employers think that if the vehicle is owned by their employee this lets them off the hook, but this is wishful thinking.”

Of the 10,000 drivers surveyed, 44.9% were driving so-called ‘grey fleet’ cars - vehicles which are privately owned but which are used on their employers’ business.

In this area the survey found that 570 accidents went unrecorded by companies in the last 12 months and of that total 116 drivers had more than one unreported accident. Fifty drivers also disclosed that they currently had nine penalty points on their licences.

Chairman of ACFO Julie Jenner said she would be “extremely surprised” if any respondents were members of ACFO as its members had been “leading the way” in tackling these issues.

But she added that she wasn’t surprised by the survey’s findings when almost half of the drivers who responded were grey fleet drivers.

“The duty of care issue is not a new one, indeed it has been high on fleet agendas for a number of years now, however, typically we have seen that companies face more of an administration burden in maintaining records and control over this group of drivers.

“Our advice would continue to be that any driver handbook includes a detailed section on drivers who use their own car on company business defining what is acceptable and what the overall company view is.

“As time-consuming as it might be, it is also imperative that companies ensure that MOTs are in place where required, that the correct insurance has been obtained to cover business use and of course that driver licence checks have been carried out.”

The findings also reveal that a significant number of at-work drivers (15.8%) do not take the time to plan their routes or journeys in advance and 6.9% admitted to not arriving at most of their meetings on time.

Separate, independent research has shown that when rushing to get to a meeting a driver is four times more likely to be involved in an accident.

On the subject of journey planning, Appleby suspected this could be a likely feature in future prosecutions.

Scott Ingham, managing director of Matrix, added: “The results of our survey show that a huge number of UK businesses and organisations are not adequately dealing with this important aspect of workplace health and safety.

“This is despite the fact that their failure to do so could ultimately, cost them their businesses and even their personal freedom.”

The survey results were compiled using 10,000 driver profiles on Driving Risk Manager over the period December 2008 to May 2009.