March 2025

Each month we will be sharing our monthly Fleet Safety Focus Update with you so that as part of your partner commitment you can raise awareness among your colleagues, members, and supply chains in your internal and external communications, blogs, social posts, emails and newsletters.

You can signpost this month’s resources by sharing this link: Fleet Safety Focus – Safe Loading

If you’d like to use our wording for your communications, please feel free to copy and paste the text below:

Copy and paste the text below and use in your emails and newsletters – please ensure the links in the copy are live and signposting to: https://www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com/fleet-safety-focus-monthly-update/safe-loading/

Driving for Better Business – new fleet safety focus update

Safe Loading

Driving is for the most people the most dangerous activity they can do.

It should go without saying that any load on your vehicle must be legal – in other words, not overloaded – and secure.

And remember, ‘load’ refers to anything being carried, including any tools or materials for use by the driver as part of their role – such as an engineer, for example.

Overloading can significantly affect the way a vehicle handles, especially in an emergency – and insecure loads can kill.

It’s vital that, as an organisation and as a manager or owner, you are confident that your drivers are trained, and understand the need to secure loads, how to secure loads, and how to correctly use and secure all the equipment this might involve.

If someone else has loaded the vehicle, the driver must check the load security.

You and your drivers both have a responsibility under Regulation 100 of the Road Vehicles (Construction & Use) Regulations 1986 to to be confident that your loads are properly secured. Insecure loads are seen as a priority road offence – because they are so dangerous – and drivers and their vehicles can be prohibited by the enforcement agencies.

So, how confident are you that your drivers can handle load safety with the proper instruction and equipment?

Driving for Better Business in collaboration with the National Highways Commercial Vehicle Incident Prevention Team are providing free to access resources to help those who manage and employ drivers. Their Fleet Safety Focus Updates cover an important area every month. This month’s update focuses on Safe Loading and the risks around unsafe loads

It includes a link to a file of useful resources for you to download and share with your drivers, including:

• An article to share with your drivers on Safe Loading
• Short safety messages on Safe Loading to send to your drivers on their devices
• Safe Loading posters for your staff noticeboards
• Information sheets from our Van Driver Toolkit on Safe Loading and Stowage

Access this month’s Fleet Safety Focus and watch the video here.