Driving for Work: Understanding the New 2025 Guidance

In Ireland, the landscape of road safety and work-related responsibilities is evolving. As of July 2025, new official guidance from the HSA, RSA, and Gardaí establishes updated legal and practical expectations for any employee driving for work. With up to 40% of workplace fatalities now linked to road incidents, and a government strategy aiming to halve work-related road deaths by 2030, understanding these new duties is critical for every employer.

This is more than a minor update; it formalises a shared responsibility between employers and employees and heightens the legal duties for anyone driving for work purposes—whether in a company vehicle or a personal one.

The Escalating Risks of Driving for Work

Heightened Legal Duties:

Employers and employees must now adhere to both the Road Traffic Acts and the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, with driving for work formally recognised as a shared responsibility.

Mandatory Risk Management:

Proactive risk assessments for all driving activities are now mandatory. This includes having dynamic systems and clear policies for handling emerging risks like adverse weather.

Expanded Scope:

The rules apply to both company-owned vehicles and personal vehicles (the “grey fleet”) used for business purposes. Commuting is excluded, but driving from home to a temporary site is covered.

Core Components of an Effective Driving for Work Policy

• A compliant Driving for Work Policy must be a clear, written document that includes several essential components:
• Licence and Fitness Checks: A system for regular, risk-based checks on employee licences and their fitness to drive, with clear records maintained.
• Vehicle & Driver Preparation: Procedures ensuring adherence to vehicle maintenance schedules, provision of safety equipment, and driver training for adverse conditions.
• Adverse Weather Policy: A clear plan for how drivers should handle issues like severe weather, with best practice being a prohibition on travel during Status Red warnings.
• Monitoring & Improvement: A system to track near misses, incident trends, and driver behaviour to ensure continuous improvement.
• Communication Protocols: Workers must have clear procedures for reporting delays or incidents and must be empowered to refuse or stop an unsafe journey with management support.
• Assigned Responsibility: The policy must assign clear responsibility for overseeing driving risks within the organisation.

Reinforce Best Practices with EazySAFE Training

Ensuring every driver understands and consistently applies these new standards can be challenging. EazySAFE’s Online Driver Safety Training course is a valuable resource designed to reinforce best practices across your entire team.

This streamlined approach standardises training delivery on the latest 2025 requirements, provides a digital certificate upon completion for easy verification, and maintains real-time compliance records for audit readiness.

Summary

The 2025 updates are not a bureaucratic formality but a critical framework for safeguarding employees on the road. A formal Driving for Work policy, supported by proactive risk management and continuous training, is now an essential component of an employer’s duty of care.

By integrating a solution like EazySAFE’s Online Driver Safety Training, companies can standardise their approach, enforce compliance consistently, and create verifiable records that stand up to scrutiny. This proactive approach transforms work-related driving from a major liability into a cornerstone of robust safety governance.

Related Posts