It doesn't matter how safe your vans are – if the loads aren't restrained properly. disaster can strike in a crash

Health and Safety legislation requires you to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of all employees while at work. You also have a responsibility to ensure that others are not put at risk by your work-related driving activities.

It is illegal to use a hand-held mobile phone while driving. Ensuring all staff, including senior managers and line managers, understand the law and their responsibilities is essential.

The Highway Code is one of the most widely recognised books in the country. It lists everything that we must and must not do when driving a car. It also lists best practice in driving behaviour in areas where the government has decided not to legislate.

If your vehicles carry dangerous items you need to register with the Environment Agency. For this purpose, dangerous items include: toxic gases; butane gas; propane gas; explosives; fireworks; other flammable items; strong acids; and radioactive materials.

Make sure your drivers stay legal - guidance to the drink drive limits

The requirements for all fleets are essentially similar, regardless of fleet size or business sector, in the UK, the legal minimum requirement is for the driver of a vehicle to hold a full and valid driving licence for that vehicle category.

Light commercial vehicles, including double-cab pick-up trucks with payloads in excess of 1000kg, are classed as a benefit in kind if they are also provided for private use. Unlike cars, tax on use of commercial vehicles provided by an employer is levied at a flat rate.

Provision of free fuel for private mileage has faced repeated attempts to curtail it during the last 10 years with a very small percentage of employees being offered the perk.

Companies are liable to pay Class 1A National Insurance contributions where staff are provided with vehicles on which they are taxed for private use.

The rules surrounding capital allowances for company car tax incentives worth hundreds of thousands of pounds for companies running low emission cars.

There are several key pieces of health and safety legislation the fleet managers and their drivers should be aware of.

Over 9,000 road crashes in 2007 involved a driver who was over the legal limit for alcohol. As a result, 2,170 people were killed or seriously injured.

There is no legal imperative for industry to make sure drivers comply with minimum sight requirements. But this is about to change, as the EU is considering introducing uniform standards of vision for employees that drive during the course of their work.

From February 2007 motorists have faced tougher penalties for breaking the law by using a hand-held mobile phone while driving. The fixed penalty includes three penalty points as well as a £60 fine.

Brake the road safety charity has produced a guide to the country's speed limits.

The Government has produced an official guide to the smokefree law.

HSE Guidelines, 'Driving at Work' state that "health and safety law applies to on-the-road work activities as to all work activities and the risks should be effectively managed within a health and safety system".

This document provides a general guide to the main principles governing driving in the UK for those without a UK-issued driving licence.

New Advisory Fuel Rates were published by HM Revenue and Customs in late November 2009. They came into force on December 1.

This extensive legislation makes provision about road traffic, registration plates, vehicle and driver information, hackney carriages and private hire vehicles, and trunk road picnic areas.

The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations cover specific areas of health, safety and welfare to supplement the general duties on employers under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The aim of this legislation was to provide a consistent set of minimum workplace standards.

The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare)Regulations 1992 and accompanying Approved Code of Practice form part of the “six pack” of regulations which came into effect on 1st January 1993. Employers have a duty to ensure workplaces meet the Health Safety and Welfare needs of the workforce.

This provides information about the legal requirements of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) which came into force on 5 December 1998. It gives a general indication of some of the main requirements of the Regulations.

The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 cover a wide range of basic health, safety and welfare issues and apply to most workplaces. They are amended by the Quarries Regulations 1999, the Health and Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2002, the Work at Height Regulations 2005, and the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007. This gives a brief outline of the requirements of the Workplace Regulations.

This document aims to explain Health and Safety guidance, codes of practice and regulations. It is for employers and selfemployed people, but will be of interest to anyone who wants to know how health and safety law is meant to work.