Can My Employer (retail) Legally Require Me To Use My Car for Company Purposes? Issue with a Work Policy that is either unintentionally vague, or maliciously vague.

Location: California.

I work a retail job in a management position (not the store manager, one of the other leader positions), so I’m inside for all of my job duties except taking stuff out to people’s cars, getting carts. Job Role/Description requires I have a driver’s license (which is fine, though employer has never once verified this). Nothing about owning a car. Do I own a car? Yes, but my employer doesn’t compensate me in any way to have a car, I’m not required to own a car. I don’t even always drive to work, sometimes I just don’t feel like it and get to work in some other fashion.

There is a policy at work that just makes my brain itch for some reason I can’t quite put my finger on. It says if a pet is injured in store (grooming, dog training, whatever) the LOD must take the dog to the vet. Doesn’t say how, just that it must be done. We have an in house vet so most of the time this would be a simple walk animal over and hand off. But occasionally this is not possible, and we have to go to a vet away from the store (several miles at minimum so walking is not a realistic option). Everyone else is totally fine with tossing an injured, unpredictable, strange animal they don’t own into their personal vehicle and taking it to the vet. I have an issue with this. Employer doesn’t pay for my car, they don’t even officially know that I have a car or what kind. On one hand I see this as a slippery slope from “Use your car for our bidding!” to “Use your residence for our bidding.” Also who is responsible should my car get damaged in the process of transporting strange dog? I could easily see employer throwing their hands up and saying “Well we never told you to take the dog in your car!” Also from the perspective of the pet owner, how do they know my car is safe, insured, registered, how do they know I’m a safe driver? Again I’ve never even proven I have a driver’s license never mind signed anything promising to drive safely on the clock.

I have repeatedly pointed out the issues in this policy and get told simply “You signed up for this deal with it” except, no I didn’t. I have never once agreed to use my car for anyone’s bidding but my own, it’s not in any policy either. They don’t know what we drive or even if we drive. This doesn’t just bother me for me, I’m bothered for all employees and customers. I don’t know if they wrote the policy being intentionally vague because they can’t cover all scenarios (though I would think a lawyer worth their degree would) or if they left it vague so that if something goes sideways they can claim no fault. So CAN they force me to use my own car for their bidding? So far I’ve managed to avoid putting bleeding strange animals in my car so I haven’t set any sort of precedent there.