This month’s guest article on Driver fatigue comes from Glen Tapper of Lloyd Morgan Group, based in Cannock, Staffordshire. 

Van fleet drivers and fatigue risk: ready for July 2026?

Ask most van fleet managers whether they know how many hours their drivers are spending behind the wheel each week, and the honest answer is often: not really. Not because they do not care, but because the systems to tell them simply have not been there.

That gap matters more than many businesses realise. Fatigue is a factor in around one in five road collisions in the UK. A driver who has been awake for 17 hours carries twice the normal collision risk; stay awake for 24 hours and that risk rises to seven times the baseline. Up to a third of all road traffic incidents involve someone who was driving for work at the time.

These are not statistics that apply only to HGV drivers on overnight runs. They apply equally to the van driver covering a sixth delivery on a busy Friday afternoon, or the field technician driving home after a day of back-to-back site visits.

Yet fatigue management in light goods vehicle fleets remains patchy. The oversight frameworks that have long been standard in heavy haulage operations, including tachograph records and mandatory drivers’ hours analysis, simply do not exist for most van fleets. Employers often have no mechanism to identify whether a driver has already worked a long shift before getting into a company vehicle, or whether rest breaks are being taken at all. Without data, there is no oversight. And without oversight, the risk accumulates invisibly.

The monitoring gap Smart Tachograph 2 closes

From 1 July 2026, vehicles over 2.5 tonnes undertaking international hire and reward journeys will be required to carry a Smart Tachograph 2 unit. For employers of van drivers who fall within that scope, the significance of this change goes well beyond the compliance requirement.

A Smart Tachograph 2 is, at its core, a monitoring tool. It records driver activity: driving time, rest periods, breaks. For employers who have never had access to that data, fitting the required equipment is not simply a matter of meeting a regulatory deadline. It is, for many, the first time they will have any meaningful visibility into whether their drivers are operating within safe hours parameters, or whether fatigue risk has been building undetected.

The employers most exposed by the July 2026 requirement are not those who consciously allow unsafe working patterns. They are the ones who simply do not know what is happening. Van drivers on long cross-border journeys, without any automated hours monitoring, present a genuine liability to themselves, to other road users, and to the business. If a serious incident occurs involving a fatigued driver, the consequences fall on the employer. In any proceedings that follow, the question will not be “what did you intend?” It will be “what did you do, and can you show us?”

Duty of care does not start with the tachograph

The Smart Tachograph 2 mandate applies to a defined set of operations. Many van fleets will sit outside the scope of the July 2026 requirement. But the question of whether driver fatigue is being actively managed applies to every employer whose staff drive for work, regardless of vehicle type, weight class or journey.

Driving for Better Business offers a free online gap analysis tool that helps employers identify where their driver management processes fall short. It takes very little time to complete and provides a clear picture of exposure across driver, vehicle and journey risk. Their fatigue resources, including the Van Driver Toolkit safety card on fatigue and their detailed guidance on sleep, scheduling and health risk, are practical tools any fleet manager can use immediately.

For employers without a formal driving for work policy, the DfBB Driving for Work Policy Builder is worth using now. A policy is not just a document: it is evidence. It demonstrates to insurers, to regulators, and if the worst happens, to a court, that the business took its obligations seriously.

Where to start

If your operation includes vans above 2.5 tonnes on international routes, the July 2026 requirement demands attention now. Sourcing, fitting and commissioning compliant tachograph equipment takes time, and driver training on correct use is a separate requirement that cannot be left until the last week.

If your operation sits outside that scope, July 2026 is still a useful prompt. Review what visibility you actually have over your drivers’ working hours. Check whether your driving for work policy addresses fatigue directly. Make sure your drivers know they can report concerns without fear of penalty. These are not compliance exercises. They are the practical steps that keep people safe.

Driver fatigue is a risk that accumulates gradually and emerges suddenly. The time to build the oversight is before an incident, not after.