Advice needed on warning to employee

[mids_biz_guy]

Hi Folks,

I have just had to issue a verbal warning to an employee for the dangerous and poor standard of their driving whilst in control of one of our sign written company vans. The standard of driving witnessed was very dangerous and bullying to other motorists. Flashing headlights to bully vehicles into moving, tailgating, verbally abusive with numerous hand signals.

I have issued a verbal warning stating the business will not accept this poor and dangerous standard of driving and that it must never happen again.

Should I back this up with a letter to protect the business if they are involved in an accident etc.

look forward to your words of advice


thanks

 

[KeepingHRSimple]

Yes, you definitely need to put this in writing to your employee and keep a copy on their personnel file. This is both to confirm the outcome of the meeting to your employee and also to ensure due diligence in terms of recordkeeping and disciplinary action.

A couple of things to point out:

You should say in the letter that the verbal warning will expire and be removed from his/her record after a period of time - usually 6 months for this kind of warning.

You should also say that if there is a recurrence of this type of behaviour, you will have no option but to move to the next stage of the disciplinary process, the outcome of which may include disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal.

I'd be happy to take a look at the letter before you send it if you want to have it checked - please send me a PM if you do.

I would also suggest that you take this opportunity to remind your employees of your company driving policy and their responsibilities to the company while driving a company vehicle.

Hope this helps.

 

[Rhodes100]

The fact is if he kills someone whilst on the road your business is personally liable so this is a potentially serious issue.

Even if he has an accident or two due to his driving, your insurance costs will rocket.

It is also bad as all some of these victims could be potential customers who will never use your services as a result of his behaviour to them.

You would need to establish whether his driving style can be corrected, there are plenty of instructors who can train your drivers to drive both safety and efficiently, think of the excess diesel he is also burning by driving aggressively.

If he cannot be trained then you would have to decide whether his behaviour warrants an immediate dismissal or whether you should go through the process or warnngs etc.

I am not an employment expert but I would intitally write to him to say that he has received a verbal warning, and ask him to undertake training in how to drive!

 

[AngelaE]

I think all points have been covered in previous posts. He's lucky he didnt get dismissed for that behaviour! Your company name is all over the van. He doesnt happen to have less than a year's service now does he...?

 

[Phoenix Driving]

Company directors can be held to acount for his accident if no training was given, get an approved driving instructor to take out all your people who will use the vans/cars etc....

You will pay around £50 for two hours, but they will be safer and they won't use as much fuel, we do compant car sessions for a few companys in Cirencester and Cheltenham, pick a driving school with experience in doing this as if you pick the wrong one they will only have knowledge on taking out learners, concider puting 'how's my driving' on the back of your vehicles too, that way you have done everything you can, also consider trakers. Hope this helps.

More info on our website google Phoenix Driving in Cirencester.

Talk to your local road safty unit.

 

[arcon5]

It doesn't sound to me the problem is necessarily with him being a bad driver... although his driving is bad it sounds more likely he simply has a bad attitude and no respect for others. I'm not sure a driving course would solve this.

 

[YourLaw.co]

I don't see from the OP that any kind of procedure was followed to arrive at a verbal warning.

I assume that someone reported to you that this driver was driving in the way that you describe but did you give the driver the chance to offer his side of the story, or did you just give him the verbal warning?

If there is the possibility that you may take disciplinary action then you should follow the correct procedure. That may be in the drivers contract or in a staff handbook or a separate document. It should exist anyway. However if you don't have a procedure to follow within the company then you need to get one in place and in the mean time follow the ACAS Code of Practice.

Francis

 

[Bill Ryan]

No issue about previous comments which are vaid and useful.

Looking at wider issues here (and I fully accept may not be relevant in your case)

is there any question of expecting too much to be done in a day's work i.e undue pressure/expectation

if you were putting the bar too high that might be a causal factor in driving behaviour..etc

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Company directors can be held to acount for his accident if no training was given, get an approved driving instructor to take out all your people who will use the vans/cars etc....

You will pay around £50 for two hours, but they will be safer and they won't use as much fuel, we do compant car sessions for a few companys in Cirencester and Cheltenham, pick a driving school with experience in doing this as if you pick the wrong one they will only have knowledge on taking out learners, concider puting 'how's my driving' on the back of your vehicles too, that way you have done everything you can, also consider trakers. Hope this helps.

More info on our website google Phoenix Driving in Cirencester.

Talk to your local road safty unit.

Good point it would be a good idea to put all your drivers on a course. In addition to this an economical driving course would be a good idea.
Do you have any proof to back up the claims you have against this driver does he have a clean licence .Do you have proof that he may have done this before. Does he have a record of this type of behaviour