BOZP for transport and road hauliers — drivers, loading and working time

The risk assessment of a transport company must cover both driving and everything that happens when the vehicle is stationary — that is exactly where most occupational accidents occur.

The working time of employees in transport is governed by Act No. 462/2007 Coll. on the organisation of working time in transport — it supplements the Labour Code with special rules for mobile workers. For drivers of goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes and buses, the directly applicable rules of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 on driving times, breaks and rest periods apply, and compliance is recorded by the tachograph.

From the BOZP perspective this is not a formal record-keeping exercise: exceeded driving times and shortened rest periods are a direct cause of microsleep and accidents. Compliance with working time in transport is checked by the labour inspectorate alongside police roadside checks — so sanctions can come from two directions at once. Setting up journey planning, records and internal rules therefore belongs in the BOZP system of a transport company just as much as the risk assessment.

A company car driver (vodič-referent) is an employee who drives a company vehicle of up to 3.5 tonnes alongside their main job — a sales representative, a service technician, a project manager with a company car. The regulations do not recognise a separate "company car driver course" as a standalone statutory obligation — it is part of familiarisation under § 7 of Act No. 124/2006 Coll.: the employer must familiarise the employee with the regulations and principles of safe work, which also cover driving a vehicle on a business trip.

In practice this means: initial familiarisation on starting work, refresher familiarisation at least once every three years (§ 7 ods. 5), with content focused on the rules for using company vehicles, pre-drive vehicle checks, breaks, phone use, alcohol and the procedure after an accident — and a signed record of all of it. This record is exactly what the Labour Inspectorate asks for first when investigating an employee's road accident. We deliver company car driver familiarisation in person and online.

Drivers in goods transport and bus drivers are subject to mandatory initial qualification and periodic training under Act No. 280/2006 Coll. — demonstrated by the driver qualification card (KKV). The card is a condition for practising the profession, but it does not replace BOZP familiarisation under § 7 of Act No. 124/2006 Coll. — the company needs both.

• Medical and psychological fitness — professional drivers undergo medical examinations and psychological assessments under the road traffic regulations; alongside these, preventive medical examinations in relation to work are carried out under § 30e of Act No. 355/2007 Coll.
• Transport of dangerous goods (ADR) — requires special training of the driver and a safety adviser under the ADR Agreement; if you carry dangerous goods only occasionally, check whether the exemptions apply to you — we will advise you.
• Agency and seasonal drivers — the user employer is responsible for their familiarisation just as for core employees; for foreign drivers, the linguistic comprehensibility of training is a statutory requirement.

Every haulier has at least a piece of a warehouse — a transhipment area, a ramp, a pallet rack. The same rules apply here as in logistics: work equipment under Government Regulation No. 392/2006 Coll., manual handling under Government Regulation No. 281/2006 Coll. and forklift truck licence cards under § 16 of Act No. 124/2006 Coll. For a full-scale warehouse we recommend the dedicated page BOZP for warehousing and logistics.

• Vehicle tail lifts are lifting VTZ of group B (Annex No. 1 II. časť písm. d) bod 4 of Decree No. 508/2009 Coll.) — they need professional inspections and an operator familiarised with the manufacturer's instructions.
• Ramps and dock levellers — regular checks of their technical condition, an anti-slip surface, and securing the vehicle against movement during loading (wheel chocks, parking brake).
• Falls from the load bed and semi-trailer — climb up and down only using a ladder or steps, jumping down is prohibited; do the sheeting from a safe position, not from the side board.

A fuel store, battery charging, welding during maintenance and parking vehicles in the hall — all of these are activities addressed by fire protection under Act No. 314/2001 Coll. OPP documentation, employee training and the professional training of fire patrols are governed by Decree No. 121/2002 Coll.; fire extinguishers are inspected at least once every 24 months under § 9 of Decree No. 347/2022 Coll.

In the workshop, reserved technical equipment is added on top: compressors and pressure vessels (pressure), electrical installations and charging stations (electrical), gas heating of the hall (gas) — all with intervals for professional inspections and tests under Decree No. 508/2009 Coll. We can provide VTZ inspections together with BOZP and OPP in one flat monthly fee.

The employer must provide an occupational health service from the first employee under § 30 of Act No. 355/2007 Coll. For drivers, the categorisation of work under § 31 takes into account in particular night work, mental workload, whole-body vibration and prolonged sitting; for warehouse staff and mechanics, physical load, noise and chemical factors. For categories 1 and 2, the contracted PZS may also be performed by a safety technician under § 30aa — so you have both BOZP and PZS from a single partner.

The Labour Inspectorate may, under § 19 of Act No. 125/2006 Coll., impose a fine of up to 100,000 euros; for an occupational accident with serious bodily harm at least 20,000 euros, and for a fatal accident at least 33,000 euros. In addition, the labour inspectorate checks compliance with Act No. 462/2007 Coll. on working time in transport, and the police check driving times under Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 — breaches of tachograph rules are sanctioned separately.

Alpha Safety s.r.o. is an external provider of comprehensive safety services for road hauliers, freight forwarders and companies with vehicle fleets throughout Slovakia — from a single company car to a fleet of trucks.

• BOZP — external safety service (BTS), risk assessment of transport and premises, site traffic and operating rules, accident investigation and representation during inspections.
• Driver familiarisation — company car drivers and professional crews, in person or online, with records that stand up to inspection.
• OPP — fire-protection documentation for halls, workshops and fuel stores, training and fire patrols.
• PZS — categorisation of drivers' and workshop work, preventive medical examinations in relation to work.
• VTZ inspections — tail lifts, workshop vehicle lifts, compressors, electrical installations and gas equipment.
• Licence cards — forklift trucks, load slingers and other professional competences for the warehouse and transhipment.

The most frequent finding in transport companies: perfectly kept tachographs, but no record of BOZP familiarisation — companies assume the driver qualification card covers everything. It does not: the KKV and familiarisation under § 7 are two different obligations, and an inspection asks about both. The second evergreen is company car drivers, whom the company often does not even know it has.

On premises, the recurring findings are missing site traffic and operating rules, reversing without a banksman and jumping down from ramps and load beds. In workshops we find tail lifts and vehicle lifts without professional inspections — few people know they are reserved technical equipment. The good news: the whole system can be built at a haulier within a few weeks, and from then on we simply maintain it.