Are they serious?

[The_Laird]

Because I get a 'car allowance' in place of a company car it has to be insured for business use, road legal, taxed, MOT'd etc. But I've now been asked to confirm, every month, that every week I check the following:
• Engine oil level
• Automatic gearbox oil level (if applicable) [but not if it's manual?]
• Coolant level
• Brake fluid level
• Washer levels (front and rear where applicable)
• Wiper blades (front and rear where applicable)
• Windscreen (for chips and damage)
• Side lights
• Headlights (including main beam)
• Brake lights
• Fog lights
• Indicators
• Seat belts
• Horn
• Hazard lights
• Dash board warning indicator lights
• Tyres for wear, condition and correct pressure

I've set up a poll - who does all of these checks, every week, 52 weeks a year?

[PsYcHe]

Because they're scared you'll sue if your car fails while you're out in it on business, or police give you a fine for blown bulbs, etc. My last job had a limit of the number of hours/miles you could drive without a break. if I'd followed the rules, a run to aberdeen would take an extra hour!

[David's8]

That's the company 'elf and safety clipboard weasels gone bonkers. There is absolutely no requirement under law that requires them to set up such checks. A declaration - annually or whatever - that it is fully covered for business use and complies with the legal requirements is quite sufficient. Or you can have a small section of every mileage claim form which, states, that by signing or submitting the claim form, you are stating are the vehicle is legal and roadworthy.

[Architex_mA8tey]

It's more applicable to a company car where they want to know that you haven't neglected it in case it fails or worse still causes some kind of injury, but I've never seen it applied to a personal car before, even one applied to business use.

Surely a simple form stating that you will keep the car roadworthy and legal within the requirements of the law at all times you use it for company business is sufficient lol. Health and safety gone mad, I agree with David.

[47p2]

Take it to a garage once a week for the checks and hit them with the invoice

[MAM]

Hand on heart, I can say that out of the above list, even when I had a company car, I checked:

Tyre tred
Engine Oil
Coolant
Lights
....... Ok, I'm running out of items on the list

Ok, I embellished, it wasn't weekly - it was monthly

Oh, and as my last 2 cars have been mine and full of electronics, the Oil, Lights and Coolant are left to the computers and tyres are occasionally checked as WTF can happen to 6mm of tred in 1 week?

[David's8]

My company just recently asked all staff to complete a form with details of Tax/ Mot etc for the same purpose. As I pointed out to HR, it was a pretty useless exercise for a number of reasons - not least being that, if they were not going to check up or require confirmation when the Mot/tax was next due, it wasnt worth the time / effort and paper involved.

Such checks are the result of the lazy, thoughtless implementation of safety management systems by people who are too stupid to understand the implications of what they are getting people to do. It really is representative of a "box ticking" mentality which, a), drives people mad, b) doesnt achieve what should be the true aim of reducing risk and, c), results in people wasting time/money / energy in writing angry emails like this.

Rant over - will get my coat now.....

[briang9]

Originally Posted by David's8

My company just recently asked all staff to complete a form with details of Tax/ Mot etc for the same purpose. As I pointed out to HR, it was a pretty useless exercise for a number of reasons - not least being that, if they were not going to check up or require confirmation when the Mot/tax was next due, it wasnt worth the time / effort and paper involved.

Such checks are the result of the lazy, thoughtless implementation of safety management systems by people who are too stupid to understand the implications of what they are getting people to do. It really is representative of a "box ticking" mentality which, a), drives people mad, b) doesnt achieve what should be the true aim of reducing risk and, c), results in people wasting time/money / energy in writing angry emails like this.

Rant over - will get my coat now.....

well said that man, another example of utter SH**E

do we need a Grumpy Old Man section for the likes of me?

[PsYcHe]

Is the whole site not pretty much a 'Grumpy Man' section : (not all of us are old!)

[Singh]

Never check my company car, it is brand new and then replaced every three months max. The RS 6 tells me the tyre temp and PSI at the click of a button, the brakes won't need changing for another 25 years at my current mileage as they're ceramic. Might give the tyres a kick and the screen wash a top up if they're lucky.