Driving for Better Business (DfBB) has published a free Truck Driver Toolkit to help employers manage work-related road risk. It gives truck drivers and the people who manage them straightforward advice on staying safe at work. DfBB created it with Transport for West Midlands (TfWM). Both launched it at The Hawthorns, West Bromwich Albion’s ground, on 4 November.

Out of sight must not mean out of mind

Driving is the most dangerous work activity that most people do (RoSPA). Every organisation has a responsibility to recognise this. It should treat road risk as it would any other health and safety duty.

Drivers spend their working day away from the workplace. Out of sight must not mean out of mind. The Truck Driver Toolkit helps employers put that into practice.

Advice employers and drivers can act on

Drivers and operators told us they wanted guidance they could read quickly and act on. More than 520,000 trucks are licensed on UK roads. In 2024, trucks were involved in 201 fatal collisions.

The toolkit sits alongside DfBB’s multi award-winning Van Driver Toolkit and Car Driver Toolkit. Together, the three give employers a consistent set of resources for every vehicle in their fleet.

What it covers

The toolkit follows the working day of a professional driver across five sections:

• Licences: GB and non-GB rules, categories, codes and cards
• Fitness to drive: drink and drug driving, fatigue, eyesight, medicals, mental health and wellbeing
• Driving safely: roadworthiness, seat belts, speed, drivers’ hours, distraction, training and the Direct Vision Standard
• Driving safety: safety systems, load security, theft, incident reporting and Operation Tramline
• Smarter driving: following distances, journey planning, bridge strikes, abnormal loads, breakdowns and roadworks

Mark Cartwright, head of commercial vehicle incident prevention at National Highways and Driving for Better Business, said: “Safety cannot be an afterthought. It has to sit at the heart of how we plan, drive and manage our fleets.”

Mat MacDonald, road safety commissioner for the West Midlands Combined Authority, said: “Truck drivers are the backbone of our economy. That’s why TfWM are delighted to partner with us on this Truck Driver Toolkit.”

The Truck Driver Toolkit is free at truckdrivertoolkit.co.uk