What are your company policy on drinking and driving in a company vehicle. After work hours have ended. I have two employes and one has a service van. Our shop is a garage behind the house. There are days when we stop back here to unload at the end of the day and have a couple beers when done. It's nice to sit down with everybody and talk. Am I wrong in letting my employee drive then
Today I saw my van after work at the local tavern. I did not like it. It is lettered and maybe I am over reacting but I do not think it is good advertising.
since "back when".... there has been almost a complete reversal of drinking
in the workplace. along with everything else, for that matter.
when i was a first year apprentice, lassoing houses, lunch was a case of michelob,
lunch started when the case arrived, and ended when it was done.
there were four to six members of the crew, not counting me, as i didn't drink...
at the time.. my job was to go get the case at 11 am, sharp.
nobody got squat done after lunch.
moving a long a few years, i was working industrial at texaco refinery with a crew of boomers...
ten of us would get in the company van, leave thru
the tank farm, drive to a really fugly bar in wilmington, on PCH, and have lunch. for the
foreman, that would be two boilermakers, some pretzels, and a tall gin and tonic to go,
which he would drink while we careened back thru the tank farm, the goal being to throw
the empty glass at the same power pole in the farm, breaking it against the pole every day.
he seldom missed.
i was often the designated driver, which explained the careening portion of mr. toads wild ride.
i also wasn't drinking during that time, at least not at work.... and they didn't serve the flavor
of powdered alcohol that i was partial to at the bar we frequented.
none of this was unusual, for the time. it was also one of the best crews i've ever worked with,
as far as professional quality of work was concerned.
today? having ANY knowledge of an employee drinking, and permitting them to drive a
company vehicle..... all he needs is an accident, and your only question will be if the opposing
insurance companies legal council would prefer sand in the vasline, or the original smooth formula.
there are a number of non alcoholic beers on the market. pick a flavor, and put that, and cokes
in the ice box. continue with the chat session, minus the alcohol.
explain why to your guys. be honest. they will get it. explain that your general liability policy,
and therefore the liability insurance of your employees goes out the window if you permit drinking.
the insurance company will cancel and blacklist you on the private industry database the underwriters
maintain.
and without insurance, there is no beer money for any of you.
also explain that for your shop trucks to be sitting outside a restaurant is one thing, and sitting outside
a bar is another altogether.
no drinker likes to be told anything about his drinking. most will not stand for it.... but if you have a
heavy drinker running work for you, you might want to take a look at that.
every employer i've had in the last 15 years or so, if you get a deuce while in their employ, it's a
one man RIF.
i'm not saying drinking is wrong. far from it. but if someone can't wait till they get home before
dropping the hammer, it says something. i'm not talking about having a beer and driving. it's
legal until you blow .08 or so.
you just stand there naked legally if you know your guys are doing it, and you say nothing.
