As a delivery driver, there are a lot of ways you can end up injured in the line of duty. You’re out and about on the road much more which means there is a greater chance of being in a road accident; you’re probably going to be unloading or loading vehicles which can lead to manual handling injuries; and there could be injuries caused on a wagon itself.
So what are your rights if you are injured as a delivery driver? Can you make a claim for personal injury compensation?
Firstly if it’s a road accident then the usual rules apply. If it’s a driver of another vehicle who is at fault, you can make a claim for personal injury compensation from their insurers. It doesn’t matter that you don’t own the vehicle – if you are injured and it wasn’t your fault, you can make a claim.
Manual Handling Injuries
The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 state that manual handling should be avoided where necessary. If it cannot be avoided, there are several things that an employer must do to protect their employees as much as they can.
Examples are:
- Risk asses all activities to ensure they are safe to carry out
- Provide equipment for assistance where possible
- Ensure staff involved are fully and adequately trained in safe lifting and carrying practises
- Ensure there are enough members of staff involved in a lift
Weights, sizes, and volumes of loads are especially important to consider. You can make a claim for personal injury compensation if there was essentially more your employer could, and should, have done to have prevented the accident. No training is an obvious one.
If you need to move large volumes of loads and your employer could have provided a pallet truck, trolley, or other piece of equipment, you can make a claim on that basis. If there is no tail lift on the back of a wagon and you are expected to bend down and pass loads off of the back of a lorry, this can be dangerous as well. Again, you could make a claim for this kind of scenario.
Injuries on a wagon / lorry / van
Importantly, the vehicle can be classed as work equipment as well as your place of work. As such, The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations and The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations can apply. These can stipulate that work equipment (i.e. the vehicle) needs to be in a sufficient state of working order and in good repair. Equipment also needs to be suitable. So if you are injured because the vehicle is defective or unsuitable, you may have a claim to make.
In these kinds of scenarios it is always worth speaking to us about making a claim. We can normally assist for most work claims on a no win, no fee basis so contact us for specialist advice on 0800 634 75 75 today.
