No.040
Hand-held mobile telephones while driving

With effect from 1st December 2003 the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 will be amended to include a new offence of using hand-held mobile telephones while driving.

Fines will range from an initial £30, rising to a maximum £1,000 if the matter is required to go to a court of Law, with the addition of penalty points on your driving license, which to some of our members is their livelihood. Using a hands free adaptor is not currently banned. However, drivers may still be prosecuted for 'failing to have proper control of their vehicle' or 'careless or reckless driving' if you are involved in any form of a road traffic accident.

The definition of driving within the Regulations includes situations where the vehicle is stationary but the engine is still running. In order to avoid committing an offence under this section, a driver will need to have parked their vehicle in a safe manner (not on the hard shoulder) with the engine switched off before using the phone.

The Regulations also make it an offence for anyone to 'cause or permit' someone else to use a hand-held phone. This will cover employers who therefore must neither ask nor expect their employees to use their mobile phones whilst driving. It doesn't mean that they cannot provide their staff with phones or unknowingly call them whilst they are driving, but they should not expect them to answer.

Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that our members are aware that from 1st December 2003 they are within their legal right to refuse to answer their company mobile telephone while driving a vehicle. Until such time as their employer has had fitted within the vehicle the appropriate hands free adaptor that includes speakers for the type of mobile phone being used.

Therefore, the advice of the GMB is, do not make or answer a call on your mobile telephone while you are driving; mobile telephone technology has improved over the last few years, and most now have the facility call divert and voice-mail, this is the safer alternative.

Produced by the GMB, London Region,
Thorne House, 152 Brent Street, Hendon. NW4 2DP
Tel: 020 8202 8272
Fax: 020 8202 2893