What are my legal obligations relating to fleet safety and driver training?
The legal obligations of employers providing company vehicles is regarded by some as a can of worms best left unopened. However, the legal web has been spun and the trap is now set following a case in the Melbourne County Court in 1999. Don Watson Trucking pleaded guilty to failing to provide a safe system of work and was fined $12,000 on the 11th August 1999. The court was told that drivers working for Don Watson had taken amphetamines to stay awake, and were regularly speeding to keep their job. In passing sentence Judge John Hassett sounded an important public warning: “Quite apart from any other considerations, the penalty which would be imposed now upon somebody who committed offences such as those with which I am concerned would be very, very much greater than the sentence which I will properly impose upon the company and you, Mr Gage. Current offences would be more severely dealt with, not only because of that very marked increase in the maximum penalties, ($40,000 – $250,000 fo
