Employers duty to record vehicle useage?

Mercdriver

TooManyPoints wrote: »

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You're quite right but that's not even half of the story.

Section 172 of the Road Traffic Act places an obligation on Registered Keepers of vehicles to provide details of the driver of the vehicle at the time of an alleged offence. It is an offence not to provide those details but there is a statutory defence which says the RK shall not be guilty if "...he did not know and could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained who the driver of the vehicle was"

However, where the RK is a "body corporate" that get out clause will not apply if records are not kept unless the alleged offender (the "body corporate") "...shows that no record was kept of the persons who drove the vehicle and that the failure to keep a record was reasonable."

So whilst it is not an offence to fail to keep records, unless it can be shown that such a failure was "reasonable", it will almost certainly ease the prosecution of a S172 offence if no records were kept.

The registered keeper has to give information which is in its power to give. So in this instance it would give Bob's information, unless the car was properly signed in and out, and the accident happened after the time the car was signed back in.