Give this handbook to everyone who drives for you. It covers vehicle checks, fatigue, bad weather, incidents and offences, with a section for commercial and HGV drivers.

Effective Staff Handbooks

This staff handbook is supplied in fully editable MS Word format and can be easily customised and edited. The document uses pre-defined style formatting throughout, with all text in Calibri font for improved readability.
The following document labelling is included in the footer:

• Handbook number and title
• Information-classification
• Version
• Page number / total pages

alphaZ documents - beautifully designed, tried and tested staff handbooks. No junk, jargon or unnecessary content. Simple and usable staff handbooks developed over 25 years through practical use in the real world.

Further Reading

Further guidance on driving for work and managing vehicles:

• Driving for Work
• Managing Drivers
• Management of Vehicles
• Health and Safety knowledge base

Logo Update Service

Download this handbook with your company name and logo already added!
Document Preparation is included with the alphaZ subscription.

How to Download

This file is included in the alphaZ subscription. This handbook is also included in the Drivers Toolkit and the FORS Document Compliance Toolkit, so the toolkit route gives you this file plus everything else you need in one download.

Need Help Implementing?

If you'd like hands-on help preparing your driving and vehicle risk assessments, our remote support services provide direct expert input from our team, by the day, by project, or on an ongoing basis.

Drivers Handbook Template

The Drivers Handbook is a Word template for everyone who drives as part of their job or on behalf of the company. It sets out the company rules for safe driving, mobile phones, alcohol and drugs, vehicle checks, driving licences, fatigue, weather and night driving, towing, fuel efficient driving, incident reporting, motoring offences and fire prevention, with a separate section for drivers of commercial and heavy goods vehicles.

It gives drivers one document to read at induction and keep for reference, and sits alongside your driving policy, vehicle check sheets and driving risk assessments.

What's Included in this Handbook

• Introduction - who the handbook is for, looking after a company vehicle as if it were your own, and how changes to the rules are notified
• General Safety when Driving - safe driving rules, mobile phones, alcohol and drugs, maintenance, and who may drive company vehicles
• Daily / Weekly Checks - daily checks of tyres, lights, fluid levels, windows and brakes, tachograph, coupling and load area checks where fitted, and the weekly checks
• Aggressive Driving Behaviour and Road Rage - recognising impatience in your own driving and not engaging with aggressive road users
• Driving Licences - holding the right licence category, licence checks at the start of employment and the use of licence checking services
• Preventing Fatigue While Driving - regular breaks, stopping when tired, and avoiding long journeys with very early starts or late finishes
• Weather Conditions and Night Driving - driving in wet, icy and snowy conditions, skids, flood water, and keeping lights and windows clean for night driving
• Towing - towing only where your licence allows it, with a clear view of the road behind
• Fuel Efficient Driving and Reduction of Engine Idling - anticipating traffic, steady speeds, avoiding harsh braking and keeping tyres correctly inflated
• Incident Reporting - reporting every accident or incident, whoever is at fault, and what to do at the scene
• Motoring / Parking Offences - reporting offences and penalty points to your manager, and who pays any fines
• Fire Prevention - ignition sources, fire extinguishers and what to do if a vehicle catches fire
• Driving Commercial or Heavy Goods Vehicles - manoeuvring and reversing with a banksman, the transport regulations drivers should know, tachographs, PPE and safety wear, load securing equipment checks, and the driver's part in loading, transportation, delivery and unloading

Built for Drivers

• Short sections drivers can read at induction and look up when they need them
• Daily and weekly check lists to use with your own vehicle check sheet
• Clear reporting routes for vehicle defects, accidents, incidents and motoring offences
• A separate section for commercial and heavy goods vehicle drivers that can be removed if it does not apply

Who Needs a Drivers Handbook?

Any business whose staff drive as part of their job, in company vehicles or their own, from sales staff and engineers in cars and vans to professional drivers of commercial and heavy goods vehicles. It suits small and medium sized businesses and fleet operators that want one handbook to issue to every driver.

Included in the Drivers and FORS Toolkits

This handbook is part of the Drivers Toolkit and the FORS Document Compliance Toolkit, alongside the driving policies, vehicle forms and driving risk assessments.

Using the Handbook

Remove the commercial and heavy goods vehicle section if your drivers only use cars and vans, add any company rules of your own, and issue the handbook to each driver at induction, recorded with F-Q4 Staff Induction Record. Defects found during the daily and weekly checks can be reported on the F-HS15 Vehicle Defect Report Form.

Related Guidance

GG-1-01 Safe Driving and GG-1-07 Company Vehicles give staff guidance on safe driving and looking after company vehicles, and TT-1-01 Safe Driving and TT-1-07 Company Vehicles cover the same topics as training talks. P-9 Driving Policy and PP-1-01 Driving Use Vehicles Policy Procedure set out the company rules, and RA-HS39 Driving and Deliveries is an example driving risk assessment.