Took a mate from Stafford Services to Birmingham once because he'd had a tyre blow on the southbound M6 and the nearest depot was in Selly Oak. Easier for me to drop him than wait for the company van. He was in the cab for about 45 minutes. No incident, no problem — until I mentioned it at the depot and the TM went very quiet.
Turns out I'd given a lift in a commercial goods vehicle without checking whether the operator's insurance and company policy covered passengers. It very possibly did. But I'd never checked, and neither had anyone else. That particular operator had it covered as a standard policy provision. Others don't.
The cab passenger question comes up regularly on agency work, especially tramping. Driver needs to get from point A to point B, it's easier to jump in with another driver, the natural thing to do. But the rules around it are more specific than most drivers know, and getting it wrong has consequences that aren't trivial.
The operator's licence and the cab passenger condition
A goods vehicle operator licence includes conditions about how the vehicles on the licence are operated. One of the standard conditions — and one that's part of the general undertakings — is that the vehicles are used in accordance with road traffic law and the terms of the operator's insurance.
Carrying unauthorised passengers isn't automatically an O-licence breach in every case. But if your operator's insurance policy excludes unauthorised passengers, and you carry one, and something goes wrong, you've potentially invalidated the insurance cover in relation to that journey. And if DVSA discover that a vehicle was being operated outside the insurance terms, that feeds into the OCRS assessment and can trigger questions at licence review about whether the operator's systems are adequate to ensure vehicles are operated legally.
The DVSA Earned Recognition scheme, for operators on the scheme, specifically looks at compliance with insurance conditions as part of the KPI framework. But even outside Earned Recognition, insurance compliance is part of what it means to operate under the licence.
Insurance — the clause most drivers haven't read
Standard goods vehicle insurance policies typically cover the driver and the operator. Passengers are a separate matter. Most commercial vehicle policies either:
- Include passengers as standard (often up to a specified number based on the number of seats fitted)
- Exclude passengers entirely unless they're travelling for the business purpose (delivery staff, checkers, second drivers on a multi-manning arrangement)
- Cover passengers only with specific operator permission in writing
The policy wording varies between insurers and between fleet policies. Some operators' fleet arrangements include a blanket passenger authorisation for named employees or CPC-qualified personnel. Others have a tighter policy that requires case-by-case permission.
The Road Traffic Act 1988 provides compulsory third-party cover for passengers in most circumstances — so if a passenger is injured in an accident in an HGV, the third-party cover will usually pay out to them even if the policy technically excluded the passenger. But the operator's own comprehensive cover — for vehicle damage, employer's liability in relation to the passenger, and commercial liability — may not apply where the insurance terms weren't met. That's where the exposure sits.
The employer's written permission requirement
Most operators who address this properly have a written procedure for cab passengers. The requirement is for authorisation in writing before the passenger travels. That can be:
- A company policy that names specific categories of authorised passengers (supervisors, vehicle inspectors, driver trainers, second drivers on scheduled multi-manning work)
- A specific written permission for a particular journey, issued by the TM
- A standing arrangement in the employment contract for company employees travelling with drivers
The key word is written. A verbal "yeah, that's fine" from the dispatcher or the TM over the phone doesn't constitute written permission for most insurance policy purposes. If you're carrying a passenger and the insurer later investigates, they'll want to see documented authorisation. A WhatsApp message might count depending on the policy wording — a call doesn't.
This is the rule most drivers haven't thought about. You ask the TM if it's okay to give someone a lift. He says yes. You give the lift. No paperwork changes hands. If something happens on that journey, you're relying on the TM's verbal authorisation to satisfy an insurance requirement that usually asks for something more formal than a phone call.
Health and safety — employer duties to cab passengers
If the passenger is an employee of the same operator — a vehicle inspector doing a spot-check ride, a trainee driver observing, a second driver travelling to a collection point — the employer has health and safety duties towards them under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The cab needs to be reasonably safe. The driver needs to be competent. The journey should be within the scope of the employment relationship.
For third parties — a mate who needs a lift, a freelance sub-contractor, a member of the public — the employer's duty of care is owed as an occupier and as the owner of the vehicle. The legal framework is different but the practical implication is the same: if they're injured in your cab on your employer's vehicle, there will be questions about what authorisation existed and what safety measures were in place.
This isn't about creating bureaucracy for routine situations. It's about having a clear line between authorised and unauthorised. "He's my mate" is not a category of authorised passenger in any insurance policy I've seen.
What DVSA check at a roadside stop
DVSA officers conducting roadside checks can ask about passengers in the cab. If there's a passenger, the officer may ask to see the passenger's identity, whether they have any authorisation to be in the vehicle, and whether the operator's policy covers them. Most of the time, a passenger who's a company employee with a legitimate reason for travelling doesn't prompt any further questions.
Where it can become a problem: a passenger who's clearly not connected to the transport operation, who has no documentation, and who the driver can't explain as an authorised traveller. DVSA won't necessarily prosecute for a cab passenger — it's not inherently illegal to have someone in the cab if the insurance and operator policy permit it — but if the stop reveals that the vehicle is being operated outside the insurance terms, that's a more significant issue that feeds back to the operator's compliance record.
Watched a DVSA officer at Stafford Services northbound ask a driver about a passenger in the cab last spring. The driver said it was his relief driver for the return journey. The officer asked to see the passenger's driver CPC card. The passenger didn't have one — he was a car driver on the way to pick up a hire vehicle. The stop didn't go as smoothly as it should have.
Multi-manning and the authorised second driver
There's a specific distinction worth making clear: a second driver on a double-manned vehicle is not a "passenger." EU 561/2006 Article 4(o) defines multi-manning as where, during each period of driving between any two consecutive daily rest periods, or between a daily rest period and a weekly rest period, there are at least two drivers in the vehicle. The second driver is there to allow continuous operation of the vehicle. Their presence in the cab is a compliance arrangement, not a passenger situation.
Multi-manning arrangements should be documented in the journey schedule and reflected in both drivers' tachograph records. When the second driver isn't in the driving seat, their tacho should be set to the appropriate mode — availability or rest, depending on the circumstances. That's a tachograph compliance question, not a passenger permission question.
The distinction matters because multi-manned journeys are specifically provided for in 561/2006 and don't need passenger authorisation. A casual lift in the cab absolutely does.
The practical approach for drivers
Before you carry anyone in the cab who isn't your employer's employee on official business, check three things.
First: does your operator's policy cover cab passengers, and under what conditions? This should be in a written policy or in the vehicle handbook. If it isn't, ask the TM.
Second: does the specific passenger you're considering carrying fit within that policy? If the policy says "company employees on official business only," your mate who needs a lift to a service station doesn't fit.
Third: do you have something in writing? A brief message from the TM authorising the specific journey, or a standing policy document that covers the type of passenger you're carrying.
It's not complicated. It's a five-minute check. Three years ago I didn't do it and got lucky. Next time might be different.
What about hitchhikers and members of the public?
Carrying a complete stranger — a hitchhiker, someone at a truck stop asking for a lift — is a different situation again. Virtually no commercial operator policy covers members of the public as cab passengers. The insurance position is almost certainly that the policy doesn't cover it. The health and safety position is murky. And if the person you've picked up turns out to be involved in any kind of crime or immigration issue, the consequences for the driver and operator are serious.
There's a specific issue with unauthorised immigrants. A driver found to have knowingly carried stowaways or unauthorised individuals in their vehicle faces a civil penalty under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 — up to £2,000 per person found concealed. For a hitchhiker scenario that's different from a stowaway situation, but the principle holds: you're responsible for who's in your cab. Carrying someone you don't know, without employer authorisation, creates risk you can't fully control.
I've heard plenty of drivers say they've always given hitchhikers the odd lift and nothing's ever gone wrong. That's probably true. The issue is what happens the one time something does go wrong — and you've got no documentation, no authorisation, and a policy that clearly doesn't cover the situation.
Lone working and personal safety considerations
Operators who run tramping or night-work routes have a duty of care to their drivers as lone workers. That creates an interesting tension with the passenger question — sometimes a driver genuinely benefits from having another person in the cab for safety reasons, particularly on very long night runs. Some operators have arrangements that allow drivers to carry specific colleagues on long runs for exactly this reason, with appropriate insurance arrangements in place.
If lone working is a genuine concern on your routes and you'd benefit from a formalised passenger arrangement, it's worth raising with the TM and getting a policy in writing. That's a better outcome than improvising on the night and hoping nothing goes wrong. The TM can't set a policy they don't know the driver needs.
If you're managing a fleet and want to track driver records, schedules, and compliance from one dashboard, ShiftOwt handles 561/WTD compliance for operators — fleet pricing on request.