Driving Licence Checks for Employees and Fleet Drivers

So what is the status of your driving licence or more importantly your drivers licence ?

Questions you may ask:

• How do I check my employees licence?               
• What information do I need to do a check?          
• What do I do if I find an issue?

How does it work?

The DVLA holds driving-licence information for licences issued in England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland licences are administered separately by the Driver & Vehicle Agency.

If you are hiring vehicles as well it enables you to give authorisations to the company you hire from, as part of their insurance provision (if you use it). They will be looking for a valid licence and dependent on the policy they will be looking at the risk profile of the driver who will be driving the vehicle.

Click Here to Check a British Licence

Note Northern Ireland has its own licence-checking service

The process is:

• The driver uses their driving-licence number, National Insurance number and licence postcode to generate a code.
• The employer or authorised checker needs the code and the last eight characters of the driving-licence number.
• The code remains valid for 21 days but can only be used once.

You must have the driver’s permission before accessing their record. Obtaining another person’s driving-licence information without permission is a criminal offence

The Licence Check can confirm:

• licence status and expiry;
• categories of vehicle the person may drive;
• penalty points and endorsements;
• disqualifications;
• any restrictions or provisional entitlements.

Note there is no universal legal rule requiring every employer to check every licence every six or twelve months. Checks should be risk-based and documented. A sensible policy could include:

• before a driver first drives for work;
• periodically thereafter;
• more frequently for drivers with points or higher-risk duties;
• following an offence, collision, change of role or reported medical/licence issue.

Drivers should also be required to report relevant changes immediately.

The real compliance point is that employers must manage work-related road risk. HSE guidance applies to company vehicles, cash-allowance vehicles and the grey fleet, and says employers should ensure licences, insurance and MOTs are valid and current. HSE guidance

• correct entitlement for the vehicle;
• licence expiry;
• business-use insurance for grey-fleet drivers;
• MOT and road-tax status where relevant;
• medical fitness and restrictions;
• action where a driver is disqualified or lacks the correct entitlement.

What Driving Licence Checking services do LetsTalkFleet Offer?

LetsTalkFleet has a number of solutions for managing your driver licence checking risks which are flexible and bespoke for fleets of all sizes, we can help you manage the following :

1. Driver Licence Checking
2. Grey Fleet Management
3. Driver Training
4. Driver Audits
5. Driver Risk Profiling
6. Accident Management and Reviews
7. Telematics Data integration with Licence Checking

When combined these solutions can deliver operational efficiencies, fleet operating compliance and enhanced driver satisfaction.

LetsTalkFleet can provide independent impartial advice on the most efficient driving licence check strategies for your business so please get in touch with any specific enquiries you have, we are available on 0330 056 3335 or via email [email protected] .