Company car driver training: do you need it

Driving schools and training agencies offer companies training for so-called company car drivers and present it as a statutory duty. It is not. Slovak legislation does not know the term company car driver, nor driving a vehicle in a company car capacity.

That does not mean an employee who drives as part of the job needs no instruction. It means something else.

What the law actually requires

Under Section 7 of Act No. 124/2006 Coll. the employer must inform the employee about the regulations on ensuring safety and health at work and about the risks that concern them. About all the risks of their work.

If an employee drives a company vehicle during working hours, the driving is part of their work and belongs in that information. So it covers Act No. 8/2009 Coll. on road traffic, the driver's duties, the technical condition of the vehicle, the mandatory equipment, what to do after a traffic accident, the journey log and the company's own rules for using the vehicle.

You therefore do not need a separate course from a driving school. You need this to be part of the safety information and to be recorded demonstrably.

When it is an entirely different matter

Do not confuse this with professional drivers. A driver operating a vehicle over 3.5 tonnes or a vehicle for carrying passengers needs a driver qualification card and periodic training under Act No. 280/2006 Coll. on compulsory initial qualification and periodic training of certain drivers. That is a genuine statutory duty and has nothing to do with company car training.

The carriage of dangerous goods under the ADR agreement is likewise regulated separately.

How often to repeat it

The interval for repeated information is set by Section 7(5) of Act No. 124/2006 Coll., namely at least once every three years unless a special regulation sets a shorter period. Many companies set a shorter interval in their internal rules, which is fine, it then simply has to be kept.

What this means for you

If someone calls saying your people must attend company car driver training, you can calmly decline. Check instead what you really need in order: whether your safety information also covers driving a vehicle, whether it is signed and whether the interval has not expired.

We handle this as part of occupational safety and we can deliver the information online through e-learning so that your whole team does not have to stop work for it. If you want to check where your company stands, get in touch.