Clearly Stating Policies Ensures that Employees Understand the Terms of Use for Company Vehicles.

RCS Influencer Alison LaValley provides a glimpse into some of the vehicle policies from contractors across the U.S.

A company policy for company vehicle use must be clearly stated so that employees and supervisors both understand the terms by which these vehicles may be used.

And thanks to a few NRCA member contractors, I am able to share some of their important vehicle and driver safety policies with you. Although no two are the same or necessarily correct or incorrect, the following practices reveal a varied approach across the country, including:

• We have a strict cell phone policy: No texting is allowed while driving – no exceptions.
• Our policy states that company vehicles can be used for business purposes only. Non-employees are not allowed to drive or be a passenger at any time.
• We allow all foreman, superintendents, estimators, project managers, safety directors, department heads, as well as the CFO, to bring their truck home. Basically, anyone that has an assigned vehicle can take it home.
• We do not allow anyone under a superintendent to take a company truck home. We do annual driving record checks on ALL employees and decide who qualifies to drive depending on each individual report.  Drivers are required to notify us of infractions even when it’s in their personal vehicles.
• We conduct annual defensive driver training classes. We have GPS to monitor our vehicles’ speed, location, as well as start and stop times. We have similar requirements for non-owned vehicles also that are used on company time.
• We do not allow our employees to take company vehicles home at night. Company vehicles are parked in garages here at our facility every night.  Several people have asked us through the years if we believe this has ever caused an employee to leave or a prospect to refuse a job.  I don’t think it’s ever caused either. They are “company” vehicles and for that reason we feel they should be used as such.
• We provide gas cards for all vehicles.
• We do not allow smoking in our vehicles, but this is a tough policy to police.
• We pay a monthly fee for a service that alerts us if one of our teammates has a change in driver’s license status. (We find out before they do).
• One of the things we do with all company drivers is a DMV check twice a year. This keeps us informed of any non-work related traffic issues and helps us identify trends, such as speeding, phone usage, etc.
• We have become very strict with our daily truck inspection reports because our state and surrounding suburbs look to the commercial vehicles as another source of revenue by writing violations. As a result, we have been able to challenge and win against an overzealous law enforcement official that is looking to drive revenue.

Alison L. LaValley, CAE, serves as Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Development for the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA), as well as Executive Director for the National Roofing Legal Resource Center (RNRLC). See her full bio here.