Driving job and smoking in the workplace

Hootie19

As we were sitting in a(nother!) traffic jam today, we saw a van from a large company and the driver was smoking.

My daughter asked me - if that is his place of work, is he allowed to smoke in the van?

I told her I had no idea - but I bet I knew some people who would!

So - are there exceptions to smoking in your place of work? What about road sweepers, or postmen? would they be allowed to smoke whilst walking the streets at work? Or what would they do for a smoking break? Would they have to remove their work uniform, or go somewhere specific for a smoking break?

Oh, the things you ponder whilst in traffic jams!

MissSarah1972

I believe that a van, car etc is a place of work and they can not smoke in it.

Obviously a person who works on the street I am sure smoking whilst actually on works time is not allowed. Not sure you can take your uniform off though if you are a road sweeper etc just to have a smoke.

tinshed

In my former place of employment if you used your own car for work purposes meetings etc and you claimed the mileage you werent supposed to smoke in it. How they policed this god only knows.

I suspect most places of employment do not allow smoking in company vehicles.

ohreally

In this context, the vehicle would be designated a workplace.

Mista_C

IIRC it's not against the law to smoke in a company vehicle as long is it is designated to a specific individual. If the vehicle is shared and/or not restricted to a particular route then smoking is prohibited. I think there's more to it but I can't remember off the top of my head.

This doesn't take into account any policy the company may have in place regarding smoking in it's vehicles. There's usually a clause in the insurance policy as well, certainly in fleet insurance anyway.

ETA: Best I could find

Nine_Lives

It was my understanding you can smoke in a vehicle if that vehicle is yours & nobody else will be entering it.

For example: the 1 man band builder who owns his own pick up truck & there's only him driving it - he can smoke in it.

The builder who has 2 lads working for him can't.

^^ That was my understanding, though i'm not 100% on that.

Sambucus_Nigra

I remember when this came in, the company I used to work for got everyone with a company car no smoking signs. There was uproar - either from people whose car it was when they were smokers [the argument was if the car was transferred to another staff member then they might be affected] or for non smokers who felt like they were being treated like children [i don't allow people to smoke anyway, i don't need a f'kin sign telling me that].

I imagine if you took a photo and sent it to the company, the driver would be on here asking advice on his gross misconduct suspension the very same day.

heartbreak_star

For those of you who are wondering how they police this - get a non-smoker to go sit in the car for all of, oooh, 5 seconds? It reeks, even with air fresheners!!

My friend smokes in her car, has it valeted once a month and the whiff is still there straight after valeting.

HBS x

Two4Tuesday

I've recently seen a Police Officer smoking in his Police car. I didn't think it wise to say anything or make a complaint as I'm sure it would lead to harassment.

SueC_2

heartbreak_star wrote: »

For those of you who are wondering how they police this - get a non-smoker to go sit in the car for all of, oooh, 5 seconds? It reeks, even with air fresheners!!

How is that policing it? Citizen's arrest? Under employment law?

CKhalvashi

My car is used for work, however it's in my personal name and is therefore my personal car.

on driving through town, there are quite a few taxi drivers with the same opinion, and I recall asking a driver if he could take the light/plate off (he wasn't officially working that night) so that I could have a cigarette on the way back from London. He was perfectly happy with this, despite being a non-smoker.

CK