Why the DfT guidance reads as a shopping list
The document is guidance rather than statute. The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 are the law, they apply to vehicles with no voltage threshold, and the DfT guidance is the recovery sector's reading of what complying with them looks like at the roadside.
PAS 43:2018 is the safe working standard for vehicle recovery, and the audits check PPE and training. The SURVIVE Group holds the PAS 43 database. An auditor with the DfT list in one hand will check your cab against it with the other.
The IVR protocol (version 4) adds guidance on fire blankets on top of the DfT list.
Carry the list as written. Arguing an item off it is a conversation with the auditor you will not win.
Hands: gauntlets, over-gloves and chemical gloves
- Class 0 insulating gauntlets, BS EN 60903. Rated 1,000V AC and 1,500V DC, which covers every traction system on the road including 800V platforms. Class 00 is 500V AC and 750V DC and is not enough. The gauntlet length matters at the roadside because you are reaching into a car you did not prepare. Visual check and air test before every use, and a pair that fails is replaced.
- Over-gloves, EN 388 and EN 420. Leather or equivalent, worn over the rubber. A crashed car is sharp edges from every angle, and an insulating gauntlet on its own is cut through in one job. The over-glove takes the damage so the insulation survives.
- Chemical resistant gloves. For electrolyte and residue from a damaged pack. A separate item for a separate hazard. Do not use the insulating gauntlets for it, because electrolyte attacks the rubber you are relying on for the electrical rating.
The common failure is one pair of everything, loose in a door pocket, never tested and never replaced. Gauntlets want a bag, a before use test and a written record of who checked them.
Breathing and eyes: RPE and eye protection
A damaged pack vents gas, and the smoke from a battery fire carries hydrogen fluoride among other things. The DfT lists respiratory protective equipment for that reason. You want a respirator with filters suited to the gases involved, fitted to the wearer, rather than the dust mask that lives in the glovebox. A dust mask does nothing against vapour.
Eye protection means sealed goggles, because the hazard is vapour and splash as well as impact. Safety glasses with open sides let vapour straight in.
Store both where they stay clean and dry. Filters have a shelf life, and the date is checked on audit.
Reading the pack: infrared thermometer and status signage
The infrared thermometer tells you whether a pack is heating before you touch, load or transport the car. Read the underside at several points on arrival, read it again before loading and again before you drive off. A rising reading means stop, move everyone back and call the fire service. You need a range that goes well into the hundreds of degrees; a thermometer made for the kitchen tops out too low to be useful.
Red, amber and green status signage tells the next person what state the car is in: green for no high voltage concern, amber for damaged or unknown, red for a pack at risk that nobody approaches. The sign stays on the vehicle so whoever receives the car inherits the warning instead of guessing.
The mistake with both is buying them and never agreeing what the readings mean. Decide the temperature that turns a car amber, the one that turns it red, and what you do at each, before the first EV job.
Fire blanket and calcium gluconate gel
An EV fire blanket contains a fire; it does not put one out. A traction battery in thermal runaway produces its own oxygen and reignites, so the blanket limits spread and buys time until the fire service arrives. Deploying one over a burning car is a two person job in practice, and the IVR protocol covers when it is appropriate. It is for trained use only. If you have not been trained on it, your job is to move people back and call 999.
There is a live argument about them. NFPA and UL FSRI research and an IAFF advisory (June 2025) warn of explosion risk from gas building up under a blanket on a battery involved fire. UK fire services have adopted blankets anyway. Follow the protocol and your training; the blanket is a tool with a procedure attached, and the procedure is the part that keeps you alive.
Calcium gluconate gel is first aid for hydrofluoric acid contact with the skin, which comes from the electrolyte in a damaged pack. The skin is flushed with water first, the gel goes on after, and the casualty still goes to hospital. The gel has an expiry date, and an expired tube on the shelf is an audit finding before it is anything else.
A kit built to the DfT list costs around £300 ex VAT from UK suppliers. Against one bad job, that is not where to economise.