Q I am told that under the Health and Safety at
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Work etc Act 1974 a vehicle Out on the road is considered to be part of an operator's premises arid all the provisions of the Act apply equally to that vehicle while it's away from its depot. Could you. confirm this?
A Yes, the statement you have made is quite correct. Section 53 of the Act contains the definitions which refer to Part 1 and in this Section " premises " include "any place and, in particular, (a) any vehicle, vessel, aircraft or hovercraft.. . ." Thus, it is necessary for an operator to provide a safe means of working for the driver of the vehicle in all those activities necessary to carry out his duties •and for any other person who might be concerned whether an employee , of the operator or not.
A simple example which springs to mind is the provision of a safe method of entering the body over the ' tailboard, such as a lightweight stepladder.
From this you will see that even if an operator has no premises from which work is actually carried out—if his operating base is his home address, for instance, he is still obliged to have regard to the provisions of the Act. Owner drivers, too, are included. Section 52(a) of the Act defines "work" as "work as an employee or as a selfemployed person" and subsection (c) states that a selfemployed person is at work throughout the time he devotes to work as a selfemployed person.