The Government has issued guidance for people who work from their vehicles, including any van drivers, couriers, lorry drivers, mobile drivers and others who use a commercial vehicle on a day-to-day basis.

Business owners will need to manage the risk associated with coronavirus and, for many van drivers, this will mean thinking carefully about how they can minimise the risks both while in their vans and once they reach the site where they'll be carrying out their work.

Keeping the risks down in a van

If you must share your van with another person, keeping to the 2m distancing guidance is probably impossible. However, there are measures you can take if there is no other way for you to work. Thankfully, one of the pieces of guidance is that if you cannot remain 2m apart, side-by-side working is preferable, so, sitting next to someone as you drive should mean the risk is reduced.

Hygiene measures will need to be top of your list of priorities, including hand washing/sanitising, surface cleaning, and clearing rubbish and belongings out of the van. Keeping antibacterial wipes and cleaning products in your van is a positive step and cleaning should be carried out regularly.

If the van is shared between drivers, the above measures are especially important.

If you must work with another person or persons, the guidance is that risks can be reduced by reducing the number of people each person must come into contact with – this might mean using partnering and fixed-team methods (so each person works with as few others as possible).

Safe deliveries and collections

f you are a delivery driver or your work involves the movement of goods and materials the government advises trying to avoid busy times at despatch centres and drop-off/pick-up points and, wherever possible, staying in your vehicle.

The advice to facilities managers has been to enable contactless payments and increase the use of electronic documentation as much as possible, and to reduce the number of people involved in any handover of goods etc.

PPE and face coverings

Anyone already using PPE in their work activity to protect against risks and non-coronavirus-related hazards, should continue to do so.

A face covering can be worn in an enclosed space (such as a van cab) and can be a simple cloth covering that goes over the nose and mouth. Face coverings must be washed after every shift if they are to be re-used.

Main points for van drivers

The government advises that wherever possible you should:

• minimise contact with other people
• clean vehicles inside and out regularly; including keys, door handles, fuel caps, steering wheel and all manual controls
• wash/sanitise hands regularly
• uphold social distancing measures wherever possible
• agree collection and delivery procedures in advance and try to avoid busy times
• utilise contactless transactions whenever possible

The full guidance can be downloaded from the Gov.UK website. 

Online van insurance quotes with iVan

Thankfully, getting an iVan any driver van insurance quote can be achieved online without the need for any face-to-face contact, so you can be sure that you stay covered, get a cheap van insurance deal and minimise the risk of contracting COVID-19 all at the same time.