Employers will need to consider how employees will travel to work. Members of staff will have concerns about travelling to work on public transport, and employers should consider how the risk can be reduced.
If risks are suitably controlled in the workplace, it is possible that workers will be exposed to greater risk travelling on public transport.
Through the risk assessment process, employers will need to establish which employees travel into work via public transport. Steps will need to be taken to reduce this as much as possible, or introduce ways to reduce employees’ exposure to risk.
For example, this may mean:
- providing extra car parking spaces to allow employees to drive to work, depending on how many people attend the workplace at any one time.
- provide facilities to encourage staff to travel by other means, such as showers and parking for cyclists.
- staggering shift patterns so employees can avoid busy periods. It is possible that many employers will do this, so busy periods may not correlate with those before lockdown.
Wherever possible, only one person at a time should use vehicles that are used for work. If this is not possible, for example in safety critical situations, staff should wear face masks and wind down the windows.
If possible, vehicles should not be shared between workers. Vehicles should be regularly and thoroughly cleaned. Particular attention should be paid to areas that are frequently touched, such as the keys, the steering wheel, the gear stick, indicator controls and so on.