Ministry of Transport statistics record 195 road deaths in New Zealand to date this year. A substantial proportion of road crashes involve someone driving for work, which makes this a workplace health and safety issue rather than only a road safety one.
Why this is a PCBU obligation
A vehicle used for work is a workplace. The Health and Safety at Work Act duty to ensure health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable applies to driving exactly as it applies to a factory floor.
That duty does not turn on employment status. Where a business influences how the work is done — through scheduling, rates, delivery windows and route allocation — it holds duties toward the person doing it, including contractors and owner-drivers.
What an investigation actually examines
This is where businesses are frequently surprised. After a serious crash involving a work vehicle, the inquiry does not stop at the driver:
- Scheduling. Could the run realistically be completed within work time limits, including loading, unloading and waiting? A schedule that could not be done legally is the operator’s problem, not the driver’s.
- Payment structure. Models rewarding distance, piece rate or delivery count create pressure toward speeding and work time breaches, and they are examined.
- Work time records — whether limits were exceeded, and whether the operator’s own records would have shown it.
- Fatigue management beyond legal minimums, since the health and safety duty goes further than transport rules.
- Maintenance systems, not just a current certificate of fitness. A CoF is a snapshot; the obligation between inspections sits with the operator.
- Driver competence — licensing, endorsements and whether the driver was assessed as competent for that vehicle and task.
- Culture — whether drivers could realistically decline work or report a defect without consequence.
Telematics data showing a pattern of speeding or harsh events that the business collected and did nothing about is worse than not having collected it. That is an argument for acting on the data, not for avoiding it.
The controls that work
Eliminate the trip. The most effective control and the least considered. Video meetings, consolidated deliveries, route optimisation and better scheduling all reduce exposure by reducing kilometres.
Realistic schedules with genuine allowance for non-driving work time. Work time includes loading, unloading, vehicle checks and waiting where the driver must be available — not just driving.
Daily pre-trip checks, recorded, with a defect reporting process that has defined rectification timeframes and a way for any driver to take a vehicle out of service without needing permission.
Scheduled preventive maintenance by distance or time rather than by breakdown.
Licence and endorsement checks on a schedule, not only at recruitment. Licences expire and suspensions occur without the employer being told.
Fatigue management that addresses shift patterns, early starts and the hours where alertness is lowest.
This applies well beyond transport operators
Any business whose people drive — sales representatives, trades, home care, delivery, service technicians — carries these duties. Businesses that think of themselves as office-based frequently have the largest untreated risk in their vehicle fleet.
The practical minimum for a non-transport business: know who drives for work and how much, check licences, maintain vehicles on a schedule, set expectations about phone use and fatigue, and do not build schedules that require speeding to meet.
Notifiable events
A death or serious injury arising out of the conduct of the business is notifiable to WorkSafe as soon as possible. Driving for work is work.
Preserve evidence — the vehicle, logbook, telematics data and maintenance records. Do not repair the vehicle or return it to service until released, and do not delete telematics data.
Where the data is
The Ministry of Transport publishes road safety statistics including crash, injury and fatality data under an open licence, updated regularly. WorkSafe publishes vehicles-at-work and fatigue guidance, and NZTA publishes work time and operator requirements.
Figures: Ministry of Transport road safety statistics, updated 11 August 2026. General information only, not legal advice.
