Grey fleet vehicles — the cars employees own and drive for work — sit inside your duty of care even though they never appear on your fleet list. Most employers have a grey fleet policy on paper but no record of each vehicle’s actual condition, and that missing evidence is the gap: HSE and DVSA both expect an employer to show that work vehicles are roadworthy, and a dated 20-point health check is the fastest way to produce it.
What counts as a grey fleet vehicle?
Grey fleet means any vehicle used for business travel that the organisation does not own or lease. The typical case is an employee driving their own car to a client meeting, a supplier site, or between offices and claiming mileage for the journey. It also covers short-term hires and cars brought to work by agency staff or contractors. Because these vehicles sit outside the company fleet register, they rarely pass through the checks applied to company cars — yet the journey itself carries the same risks.
Does duty of care apply to an employee’s own car?
Yes — duty of care follows the journey, not the owner. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 places a general duty on employers to protect the health and safety of employees while at work, and HSE’s driving-at-work guidance treats work-related road travel as part of that duty. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 add a requirement to assess the risks of work activities, including journeys made in vehicles the employer does not own. Who holds the V5 does not move the obligation: DVSA’s roadworthiness standards apply to any vehicle on the public road, and a journey made for work is a work activity whether the car is leased by the company or financed by the driver.
What is the grey fleet duty-of-care gap?
The gap is that most grey fleet policies stop at documents. Employees confirm the car is insured, taxed, and has a valid MOT, and the employer files the declaration. That covers paperwork, not the vehicle. An MOT is a single annual snapshot taken as long as eleven months before the journey it is meant to cover, and it does not capture tyre, light, or wiper condition on the day the car is used for work. Insurance confirms a policy exists; it says nothing about tread depth or a cracked windscreen. The gap is the difference between a signed declaration and a record of the vehicle’s condition at the point of use.
| Check | Company car | Grey fleet vehicle |
|---|---|---|
| Owned or leased by the employer | Yes | No — employee-owned |
| On a scheduled maintenance programme | Usually | Rarely |
| Documented condition record | Often | Rarely |
| Employer duty of care | Yes | Yes |
What closes the grey fleet gap?
Evidence of the car’s condition closes it. A dated inspection of the vehicle’s condition, carried out by someone other than the driver and written down at the time, turns the assertion “my car is fine” into a record the employer can file against the employee’s grey fleet declaration. HSE’s driving-at-work guidance points to checking vehicles as part of managing work-related road risk, and DVSA’s roadworthiness guidance expects drivers to satisfy themselves a vehicle is safe before a journey. An independent check supports both.
Can a vehicle health check serve as grey fleet evidence?
Yes — a recorded vehicle inspection fits this exactly. A 20-point health check documents the condition of the car at a specific moment and produces a dated record the employer can keep on file. The value is not the number of points; it is that an independent pair of eyes has looked at the vehicle and written down what it found, which is the evidence a grey fleet file usually lacks. Because the check happens at the workplace, it slots into the working day — the car is already there, and the employee does not need to visit a garage.
For Surrey-based teams the same mobile service runs across the area — mobile car valeting in Kingston upon Thames or mobile valeting in Guildford — so the check can follow the employee to whichever site they work from.
What should a grey fleet policy contain?
A policy that survives scrutiny does three things. First, it defines who is in scope: any employee, contractor, or agency worker who drives a non-company vehicle on business. Second, it sets the minimum standard — a valid MOT where required, insurance that covers business use (personal policies often do not), and a declaration updated at least annually. Third, and most often missing, it requires evidence of condition: a dated inspection that shows the vehicle was checked, not just claimed to be checked. The first two are common; the third is the gap most employers have not closed.
Where does the grey fleet gap show up first?
After an incident. The gap rarely surfaces in routine admin; it surfaces when an insurer or an investigating body asks what the employer knew about the vehicle its employee was driving. At that point a signed declaration is thin evidence, while a dated inspection record is a step the employer can demonstrate. Grey fleet vehicles are also often older and higher-mileage than company cars, which is a broad pattern rather than a rule, and it means the checks employers skip are often the ones most needed.
What should a grey fleet inspection record show?
A useful inspection record names the vehicle, the date, and what was checked, and flags anything found below standard. For a grey fleet file the employer does not need forensic detail; it needs a dated record that a competent person inspected the vehicle and noted its condition, so that if the vehicle is later involved in an incident, the employer can show it took reasonable steps. That record is what a 20-point Vehicle Health Check produces, and it is the difference between a policy and a paper trail.
What do HSE and DVSA actually expect?
HSE expects employers to manage work-related road risk, including journeys in cars they do not own, and DVSA expects any car on the road to be roadworthy. This article summarises published guidance and is not legal advice; what an employer must do depends on its own circumstances. The practical point is narrower: a grey fleet policy without a condition record is a policy with a hole in it. HSE’s free guide, Driving at work: managing work-related road safety (INDG382), and DVSA’s roadworthiness guidance are both available to download, so any fleet manager can check the reference points directly. What MMCC supplies is the evidence layer — a dated, independent record of vehicle condition that a policy can point to, the same record company cars get, described in our piece on per-vehicle condition records.
How the checks run for company and grey fleet cars alike is set out on our Corporate fleet services page.
Fleet managers can map their grey fleet exposure and the evidence it needs through a Fleet Readiness Audit.