Cell Phone Policies for Employees Who Drive
Posted in Health & Safety
Anyone who owns a mobile phone knows how convenient it is to own and use one. You can make a call from anywhere, like from your car for instance. You can make a call while doing something else, like say driving.
Whatever convenience your mobile phone brings, like having an employee call you to give work-related information or updates, or just to tell you that he's running late, certain mobile phone practices such as the calling-while-driving scenario, compromise their safety.
State Laws on Cell Phone Use By Drivers
Making a call while driving can be distracting. The National Highway Transportation Safety Association and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute reports that nearly 80 percent of crashes their year-long study recorded "involved some form of driver distraction or drowsiness."
The research names cell phone use as the number one source of driver distraction.
Because of this, a number of states enforce laws that limit cell phone use while driving. Some of these laws include:
Requiring drivers to us a hands-free device if they want to talk on the phone.
Prohibiting younger or less experienced drivers from using any type of cell phone.
Allowing officers to cite drivers for using a hand-held cell phone if the driver is pulled over for another offense.
Employer Liability for Employee Accidents
Most people, including (or especially) employees use cell phones. These cell phones may be the employees' own or issued by their employer for work. As thus, employers should have a policy that restricts their employees from using their cell phones while driving - even if your state doesn't have laws that prohibit cell phone use by drivers. Your company could be held liable for damages if one of your employees causes an accident while doing business on a cell phone.
Research has repeatedly shown that using a cell phone while driving is dangerous.
Nolo.com gives the following examples:
A stock broker was making a cold call to a potential client while driving when he struck and killed a motorcyclist. Although the broker was using his own cell phone and driving to a nonwork event, the plaintiff argued that the brokerage firm should be found liable because it encouraged employees to use their cell phones for work without training them on safety issues. The brokerage eventually settled the case for half a million dollars.
An employee of International Paper was using her company cell phone when she rear-ended another driver on the freeway, causing injuries that eventually required the other driver to lose her arm. The company paid more than $5 million to settle the case.
What Your Policy Should Include
Your cell phone use policies for employees who drive should include:
Prohibiting employees from using cell phones while driving
Telling employees what to do if they receive a call while driving. For instance, ask the caller to wait until the employee can pull over or tell the caller that the employee will return the call.
Address hands-free technology. For example, if your company will allow employees to use hands-free technology while driving, you should issue them hands-free equipment.
Explain that safety remains a concern. Employees should keep all calls while driving short, and that they should end any call that distracts them from the road.
Other matters that companies should include their cell phone use policies may deal with anything form proper use of company-issued phones to use of personal phones at work. (Smart Policies for Workplace Technologies)
Source: Nolo.com
