Duty of Care in Business Ground Transport: What to Check

Why ground transport reaches the risk register

Flights and hotels attract most of the attention in corporate travel risk, largely because they are booked through systems that generate reports. Ground transport is the part that gets arranged informally, often by the traveller, sometimes on a phone at the kerbside, and it is the part where an organisation has the least visibility. That gap is why it appears on risk registers, and why procurement teams increasingly ask about it during supplier reviews. Nothing here is legal advice; obligations depend on your own arrangements and should be taken from your own advisers.

The licensing question, asked properly

In England and Wales, journeys arranged in advance for payment fall within the private hire regime, which licenses the operator, the driver and the vehicle separately and through a named local authority. The useful questions to ask a supplier are therefore specific rather than general: which authority issues the operator licence, whether the drivers who will carry your staff are licensed, and whether the vehicles hold current licences and appropriate hire and reward insurance.

• Which licensing authority issued the operator licence
• Whether the driver and vehicle licences are current
• Whether insurance covers carrying passengers for hire and reward
• Whether any part of the work is passed to another operator

Knowing where people are

A duty of care conversation usually turns on whether the organisation can establish where a traveller is if something happens. For ground transport that does not require a tracking platform: it requires a booking record with a date, times, a route and a passenger name, held somewhere that a manager can reach at short notice. Where staff arrange their own journeys informally and claim them back afterwards, none of that exists at the moment it would be needed.

Records that exist before you need them

The value of a booking record is that it was created in advance rather than reconstructed. A confirmation naming the chauffeur and vehicle, sent to the traveller before the journey, tells them who to expect and gives the organisation something concrete. For late-night and lone travel this matters most, because it converts a vague arrangement into an identifiable one. What a particular operator retains and for how long is a fair question to ask during onboarding.

Incidents, complaints and escalation

Most journeys are uneventful, which is exactly why the exception needs a route agreed in advance. Who a traveller contacts if a vehicle does not arrive, who inside your organisation is told, and how a complaint is investigated afterwards are all worth settling before they are needed. A supplier who cannot describe what happens when something goes wrong is describing a service that has not thought about it.

Putting it into the supplier conversation

These questions belong at onboarding rather than after an incident, and most are answered quickly. Where your organisation runs a formal assurance process, sharing the questionnaire early gives time for a considered response rather than a rushed one. Contractual terms, insurance evidence and record-keeping arrangements are agreed per account at the point of enquiry rather than published as a standard offer.

Plan your chauffeur journey

London Chauffeurs provides itinerary-led private travel for airport transfers, executive travel, private aviation, events and long-distance UK journeys. Availability and pricing are confirmed for the requested itinerary.

Frequently asked questions