How to write a driving for work risk assessment

By the Smart Strix team · Updated 15 July 2026

If your people drive on business, the law expects you to have assessed the risk of it — and HSE gives you a ready-made structure to hang that assessment on.

In short: the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require employers to assess risks arising from work activities, and HSE guidance confirms that on-the-road work driving is one of those activities; where you have five or more employees, the significant findings must be recorded in writing — check the current HSE position at hse.gov.uk. The assessment itself is straightforward if you split it the way HSE does: driver, vehicle, journey. Smart Strix, built for UK fleets of 2–50 vehicles, publishes this guide with a worked example you can adapt.

Do I legally need a risk assessment for employees who drive?

Yes, if driving is part of their work. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 sets the general duty to protect employees so far as reasonably practicable, and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 add the specific obligation to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment — HSE's work-related road safety guidance makes explicit that these duties apply to driving for work, and that road traffic law compliance alone does not discharge them. The five-or-more-employees threshold for a written record comes from the same regulations, though writing it down is sensible at any size, because an unrecorded assessment is impossible to evidence after an incident. As with all regulatory summaries, confirm the current requirements with HSE and gov.uk.

The assessment covers everyone who drives on business: employed van drivers, staff in pool cars, and employees using their own vehicles — that last group is your grey fleet, covered in depth in our grey fleet management guide. Ordinary commuting is generally out of scope.

What should a driving for work risk assessment cover?

HSE structures work-related road risk around three questions — is the driver fit and competent, is the vehicle fit for purpose and roadworthy, and is the journey planned sensibly? Use those as your three sections.

The driver

Licence validity and categories, checked at induction and on a recurring cycle
Competence and familiarity with the vehicle type — a 3.5t Luton is not a hatchback
Fitness: eyesight, fatigue, medication, and a route for drivers to declare problems without penalty
Behaviour policies: mobile phones, speed, drink and drugs, seatbelts

The vehicle

Suitability for the task, including payload and load security
Maintenance regime, defect reporting and daily walkaround checks — see our guide to daily vehicle check requirements
In-vehicle safety equipment: first aid, high-vis, torch, and seasonal kit

The journey

Scheduling that allows legal breaks and does not reward speeding — GB domestic rules for vans include a 30-minute break after 5.5 hours of driving; our van driver hours guide has the detail
Route factors: motorway versus rural single-carriageway, urban multi-drop density
Weather and daylight, with authority for drivers to delay or abort in severe conditions
Distance and the temptation of "one last job" late in a shift

What does a completed example look like?

Here is a compressed extract for a small courier operation — the format matters more than the wording. Each row names the hazard, who is at risk, the controls in place, and what remains to do.

Hazard	Who is at risk	Existing controls	Further action
Driver fatigue on long shifts	Drivers, other road users	Shift clock-in/out recorded; breaks scheduled into driver days	Monthly review of hours worked against policy limits
Vehicle defect causing failure	Drivers, public	Daily walkaround; photographed check-in/out; defects reported same day	Audit one vehicle's records per month
Mobile phone distraction	Drivers, public	Hands-free-only policy signed at induction; dispatch messages held until stationary	Refresher briefing every 12 months
Winter road conditions	Drivers	Seasonal kit issued; authority to delay in amber/red warnings	Pre-winter vehicle prep each October

How often should the assessment be reviewed?

Review it annually as a baseline, and immediately when something material changes: a collision or near miss, new vehicle types, new work patterns (say, adding overnight trunking), new drivers with different experience profiles, or a change in the law. A risk assessment that predates your current operation is close to worthless as evidence. Date every version, note what changed, and keep superseded copies — the paper trail showing the assessment evolving with the business is itself proof the duty is being taken seriously. This sits inside the broader obligations described in our duty of care guide.

How do you turn the assessment into daily practice?

An assessment only reduces risk when its controls run every day without heroics. That means systems, not memory: recurring licence-check reminders, walkaround records that are actually captured, shift times that are logged rather than guessed, and document expiry alerts before MOT or insurance lapses. Smart Strix covers that operational layer for small fleets — shift clock-in/out with weekly history, vehicle check-in/check-out with photos, and a document expiry radar across MOT, insurance and V5C — see fleet compliance features. The duty and the assessment remain yours under HSWA 1974 and MHSWR 1999; software helps you evidence that the controls really operated.

Frequently asked questions

Is a driving for work risk assessment a legal requirement?

Employers must assess risks from work activities under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, and HSE guidance confirms driving for work is in scope. With five or more employees the significant findings must be written down. Check hse.gov.uk for the current guidance.

Does the assessment cover employees using their own cars?

Yes — the duty follows the work journey, not vehicle ownership, so grey fleet drivers are included. Controls differ (document checks and policy rather than direct vehicle maintenance), but they must appear in the assessment.

Who should write the risk assessment?

Someone competent who knows the actual driving work — in a small fleet usually the owner or transport manager, ideally with input from drivers, who know where the real pressures are. You can use external consultants, but the legal responsibility stays with the employer.

How often must a driving risk assessment be reviewed?

There is no fixed statutory interval; the requirement is to keep it valid. An annual review plus an immediate review after incidents, operational changes or legal changes is the widely used pattern.

Is complying with road traffic law enough on its own?

No — HSE guidance is explicit that health and safety duties apply separately from road traffic law, so a taxed, MOT'd vehicle and a licensed driver do not by themselves demonstrate the risk has been assessed and managed.

What is the driver, vehicle, journey framework?

It is HSE's way of structuring work-related road risk: assess whether the driver is competent and fit, whether the vehicle is suitable and roadworthy, and whether the journey is planned to be achievable safely. Most driving risk assessments use these three headings.

Do I need a separate assessment for every driver?

Usually not — one assessment can cover a category of similar work (for example, multi-drop van delivery), with individual records such as licence checks sitting underneath it. Genuinely different activities, like recovery work at the roadside, warrant their own assessment.