Why road safety matters

Vehicles used for work purposes in BC are workplaces. As an employer, you’re responsible for the health and safety of your employees. This includes when they drive or ride in a vehicle for any work-related reason. Road safety best practices can help you meet your legal responsibilities.

Meeting WorkSafeBC responsibilities

Whether your organization is large or small, WorkSafeBC assigns specific health and safety roles, rights, and responsibilities in your workplace. The following practices can help keep your employees safe, and to help fulfill your road safety responsibilities:

• Build and implement a road safety plan that addresses the driving-related risks your employees encounter. Include policies, procedures, and practices that effectively minimize exposure to hazards and reduce associated risks.
• Tell employees about the hazards they may encounter and ask them to help identify hazards and resolve them.
• Regularly assess road safety risks.
• Check employee driver’s license and record (abstract).
• Assess employee driving abilities and provide the orientation, training, and supervision that will help them build the skills they need to drive safely.
• Make sure work vehicles are properly selected.
• Conduct regular vehicle inspections and maintenance. Fix problems reported by your employees.
• Investigate vehicle crashes and near misses.
• Ensure your employees know their health and safety rights and responsibilities.

You can delegate responsibilities to supervisors but you remain accountable.

Use of employee-owned vehicles

You may have employees who drive their own vehicles for work. You’re still responsible for their safety. The vehicle can be owned, leased, rented, or borrowed by the employee.

Have the same rules and expectations for employee safety regardless of who owns the vehicle.

In addition, regularly ask employees for records showing that their personal vehicle is appropriately insured, inspected, and maintained.

Meeting Motor Vehicle Act requirements

You may have responsibilities under both the Motor Vehicle Act and the Motor Vehicle Act Regulations.

The Act and Regulations make the owner of a vehicle responsible for appropriately registering, insuring, equipping, and maintaining the vehicle. For example, the owner needs to ensure that the brakes work. If you own the vehicle, this responsibility falls on you. If an employee owns the vehicle, it’s their responsibility.

The Commercial Transport Procedures Manual explains inspection requirements you need to follow for taxis, buses, and other commercial vehicles. Review the Carrier Safety Guide to understand Safety Code requirements for safety certificates, hours of service, log books, trip inspections, and general road safety.

For more information, review our Employer’s Occupational Road Safety Responsibilities Guide (PDF).

A supervisor is anyone who instructs, directs, and controls employees. Your job title doesn’t matter. If you meet this definition, you’ve got supervisory responsibilities.

Your responsibilities

Your broad supervisory duties for road safety include:

• Ensuring the health and safety of employees under your supervision
• Being knowledgeable about the regulations that apply to the work driving you supervise
• Making sure employees are aware of known and reasonably foreseeable hazards
• Ensuring employees comply with the regulations and your organization’s policies and procedures

Review the Supervising for health & safety guide to learn more about supervisory responsibilities.

Shared responsibilities

Your employer can delegate health and safety duties to you and to other employees, but the employer is still accountable for them.

For example, your employer may direct you to make sure drivers have the skills and training they need to safely drive for work. You need to understand the driving employees do, find out what driving skills employees have, and take steps to provide the training they need. Employees then have a responsibility to complete the training, and develop and apply necessary driving skills. But the employer remains accountable for making sure those things are done.

Cooperatively sharing safety responsibilities gives everyone a stake in road safety and contributes to safer workplaces.

Meeting WorkSafeBC responsibilities

Ensuring drivers follow best road safety practices can help you fulfill your obligations, and help employees make it safely through the day. Review our Supervisor’s Occupational Road Safety Responsibilities Guide (PDF).

WorkSafeBC assigns you health and safety rights and responsibilities if you drive or ride in a work vehicle as part of your job. They apply whether you drive full time, part time, or just occasionally.

Your rights

You have the right to:

• Know about driving-related hazards you may encounter
• Participate in health and safety activities in the workplace
• Refuse unsafe work (this is also a legal obligation)

Your responsibilities

Your responsibilities include:

• Taking reasonable care to protect yourself and others who may be affected by your work
• Knowing and following safety regulations, traffic laws, and your organization’s safe work procedures
• Being alert to driving-related hazards and reporting them to your supervisor or employer
• Never working under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or if you’re overly tired
• Properly using the required protective clothing and equipment

Your shared responsibilities

Staying safe at work is a collaboration between you, your employer, and your supervisor. Your employer, for example, has a duty to make you aware of driving-related hazards, and you have a duty to follow the employer’s direction for dealing with those hazards.

When you both live up to your safety responsibilities, you have a better chance of going home safe at the end of your shift.

You also need to report vehicle issues that could affect your driving safety. Your employer or supervisor has a responsibility to receive and review your reports. They also need to make sure necessary repairs are done before allowing the vehicle to be used for work.

Using your vehicle for work

When you use your own vehicle, you have some additional responsibilities. These include:

• Ensuring the vehicle is appropriately registered, insured, operated, and maintained
• Keeping records of insurance, inspection, and maintenance and providing them to your employer when asked

The vehicle is considered yours if you own or lease it and are named on the registration and insurance, or if you have borrowed it. You’re responsible for any traffic violations that occur when you’re driving your own vehicle.

Meeting your safety responsibilities

Following best practices, driving laws, and your organization’s road safety policies can help you fulfill your obligations. We recommend you review our Employee’s Occupational Road Safety Responsibilities Guide (PDF) and do the following:

• Report unsafe or harmful conditions such as unsafe vehicles, poor road conditions, risky driving behaviours, etc.
• Always focus on driving. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted. Don’t call or text while at the wheel, even at red lights.
• Avoid high-risk driving (speeding, tailgating, etc.).
• Inspect the vehicle before the start of each shift. Report any issues to your supervisor or employer.
• Make any adjustments, such as shifting your seat or mirrors, before the vehicle is used.
• Keep the vehicle free of anything that could interfere with driving, such as a loose water bottle.
• Keep records of inspections, maintenance, and repairs if you use your personal vehicle for work.

These requirements apply to owners and operators of commercial vehicles that are designed to carry a load such as goods, freight, people, etc. Vehicles include:

• Ambulances
• Buses
• Fire trucks
• Hearses
• Taxis, limousines
• Tow trucks
• Trucks with an attached delivery body
• Truck and trailer combinations
• Some road-building machines
• Some pickups and vans

Review the Commercial Transport Procedures Manual, related bulletins, and circulars for information on meeting these responsibilities.

This Act and its associated regulations apply to owners and operators of commercial passenger vehicles such as taxis, limousines, and some buses. They also govern operations of vehicles used for ride-hailing services.

Review the rules, regulations, and licensing of commercial passenger transportation in BC for information on meeting these responsibilities. You can also visit Transportation Network Services and review rules for commercial ride-hail and taxis.

The provincial Industrial Roads Act and Regulations apply to owners and drivers when vehicles travel roads constructed on certain Crown or private lands. If the roads are used primarily for transporting natural resources, machinery, materials, or personnel, the laws apply.

The Act deals with administrative and road maintenance matters, as well as driver licencing and vehicle maintenance when operating on industrial roads. The Regulations explain requirements around vehicle inspections, record keeping, reporting unsafe conditions, maintenance, lights, and driver licensing.

The Canada Labour Code applies to employers with operations crossing one or more provincial boundaries. Federally-regulated employers include:

• Airlines
• Broadcasting
• Chartered banks
• International shipping
• Interprovincial pipeline, rail, trucking
• Military
• Postal service
• RCMP
• Telecommunications

Many of the requirements in the Code are similar to those in the Workers Compensation Act and Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. They describe employer responsibilities to ensure employee health and safety. They also cover hazard identification, training, supervision, personal protective equipment, first aid, investigations, and other matters. The Code states that vehicles used for work must meet prescribed ergonomic standards.

Federal and provincial laws apply when transporting dangerous goods in commercial or personal vehicles in BC.

The federal Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act and Regulations describe requirements for transporting substances or materials that are dangerous to life, health, property, or the environment. This includes substances that are explosive, flammable, combustible or poisonous, compressed gases, nuclear substances, or organisms.

The BC Transport of Dangerous Goods Act applies when transporting any product, substance, or organism listed in the provincial Regulation.

Review responsibilities for transporting dangerous goods.

The federal Criminal Code has potential implications for employers and supervisors.

Section 217.1 explains that any person who has the authority to direct how someone does their work has a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent any resulting bodily harm. Other sections address the criminal liability organizations and their representatives may have for negligence and other offences.