National Highways has launched a series of ‘Toolbox Talks’ videos to raise awareness of vital safety and compliance issues with van operators and their drivers.
Unveiled during a conference at the National Space Centre, near Leicester, the videos last around 8-10 minutes each and tackle many areas where misconceptions around van regulations occurs.
Subjects covered include fatigue, drivers’ hours, safe towing, distractions, severe weather, speed limits, roadworthiness and safe loading.
The videos are designed to be straight-talking and cut through the myths to keep drivers safe, vans legal and to ensure employers comply with not just road traffic legislation but also their Health and Safety at Work responsibilities.
Each video also has a short quiz at the end to help drivers check their understanding of what they’ve just learned.
“The Toolbox Talks are aimed at the huge number of van operators who may not have the in-house expertise or resources and have a hazy understanding of the law,” said Mark Cartwright, head of the commercial vehicle incident prevention team at National Highways.
Cartwright added that lack of awareness of regulations was a major issue for drivers.
“When HGVs are pulled over by the DVSA, the driver is usually aware what’s gone wrong. With van drivers, they often say they simply weren’t aware of the law. But it’s worth knowing that 89% of vans stopped by DVSA are overloaded, and the average fine per overloading offence is around £972. Ignorance is no defence.”
The new videos launch on the back of the success of the National Highways’ Van Driver Toolkit.
Cartwright added: “We’re delighted with the impact our free Van Driver Toolkit resource is having in raising awareness of safety and compliance with van operators and their drivers, which was accessed 21,800 times in 2022 – and 46,009 times overall.
“PDFs of the Toolkit were downloaded 842 times in 2022 and 6152 overall. We’ve been listening to their feedback which is why we’re now releasing this series of ready-made toolbox talks. We’re sure operators will find this useful.”
The Toolbox Talks are available here.
