Speeding and Company Cars

There are some specific provisions of the Road Traffic Act 1991 dealing with situations where a speeding offence is committed by an employee of a company and it is not known who was driving the vehicle at the time in question.

Company Cars

In the case of a limited company, section 21 of the Road Traffic Act 1991 requires the keeper of the vehicle to identify who was the driver and provides that it is an offence for the keeper to fail to comply. If the Keeper shows that he did not know who the driver was and could not have found out by using "reasonable diligence".

Limited companies must also prove that the Company did not keep a record of who was driving the vehicle and that the failure to do so was a reasonable one.

It would normally be expected that companies should keep such records. For example if pool cars are used, there should be a system of signing in and out. If the company does have such a system but it didn't work on a particular occasion that might be a sufficient defence. If however a director or senior manager of the company caused the failure to identify the driver, that person is also guilty of an offence.