Why is it important to carry out DVLA Licence Checks on your employees?

It is a requirement for every company to do DVLA licence checks on their employees who drive on company business at least once a year. Most employees need to drive in order to do their duties whilst at their workplace, so employers must ensure that all their employees hold valid UK driving licences with the correct vehicle entitlements they need to do their job.

If any of your employees are found driving without a full UK driving licence, consequences can include:

• A fine of up to £1000 plus three to six penalty points
• Banned from obtaining a full licence for a set period of time

This is where we come in. Employers can use our secure online licence checking platform to check and monitor their driver pool. When your employees grant consent online through the e-consent process or by the D796 paper mandate document, you can view their licence record and can have access to data such as:

• Whether they hold a full UK driving licence
• What licence categories they hold
• Status of the licence
• Current endorsements and points on driving licence
• Access to the licence record 24/7 in a secure environment

As soon as your employees grant consent you can check them as many times you like within a 3 year period. You can schedule automatic licence rechecks based on how many points the driver holds, what conviction they have and whether they are low, medium or high risk drivers.

What are the benefits to employers for having an online licence checking service in place?

There are a number of benefits for having a licence checking service in place, such as:

• Our system will assist you in managing compliance, making sure that your employees are legally entitled to drive.
• A permanent and secure online audit trial - which reduces the admin burden and proves you've performed driving licence checks on your drivers.
• Accurate reports for individual records as well as your whole fleet.
• Instant checks and notifications - raising any immediate actions that require your attention.
• Training through the online system and support when you require it during our opening hours
• It saves you time and it saves you money!

By utilising our DVLA authorised licence check service, you are doing everything you possibly can to protect your organisation against high risk drivers in your fleet.

If you require any more information in regards to our service, don't hesitate to contact us.
 

Useful Tips For Fleet Managers Conducting Driving Licence Checks

Managing a fleet is a complex task and involves a number of aspects. One task involves checking the driving licences of employees to ensure that they are eligible to drive. Most fleet operating companies employ a fleet manager, who is entrusted with the responsibility of checking driving licences of employees.

When the driving licence counterpart was abolished in June 2015, people were confused in regards to where and what to do next. The DVLA introduced a view my driving licence service and third parties like ourselves were reached out for some guidance and what route to go down.

A number of companies started using the view my driving licence service but came to us a short time after due to administrative burdens and drivers not completing the process in time. (Remember, the code you have to share with your employer has to be used within 3 weeks and can't be reused if the deadline is missed).

Now our online portal has over 1,000 customers and it's still growing at a rapid rate.

The DVLA service and our Licence Checking service - What are the differences?

There are a number of differences in regards to the DVLA and our Licence Check Service. These are as follows:

• The DVLA service is a one off check. In our system, once the driver grants consent, you can check them as many times you like within a 3 year period, until the consent is renewed.

• There is no reporting provided in the DVLA service. We provide reports for individual records as well as your whole fleet. We also provide notifications for when you've completed a check in the system.

• The DVLA service isn't ISO Security Standard certified. Our licence check service is ISO27001:2013 certified, as well as holding cyber essentials and IASME security certification. 

•  If a driver comes back as disqualified, revoked, expired or they hold a foreign licence, we will give you a call notifying you of the situation and what to do next. The DVLA won't do this.

Checking the driving licence photo-card is up to date

While checking driving licences, it is important to make sure that your employees provide you with their most up to date driving licence photo-card. It's essentials that drivers keep these up to date, as if they are caught with an out of date photo-card, they can be fined up to £1,000.

Checking the vehicle category for which the licence is valid

During a driving licence check, it is advisable to make sure that the driver holds the correct entitlement for the vehicle he drives for your organisation. For example, if an employee is required to drive a lorry between 3,500kg and 7,500kg then they will need to hold a full and valid C1 entitlement on their driving licence. The rules make it illegal for a driver to drive a vehicle for which he does not possess a valid driving licence or the valid entitlement.

Checking points and endorsements

Driving may attract penalties and driving offenses. Every driving offense has fixed fines and results in points being added to the licence. A driving ban, which may be valid for a period ranging between three to four years, is imposed once the driver accumulates 12 points on his licence. While checking driving licences, it is important to consider this aspect.

Checking specific driving conditions

It is also recommended to check the specific conditions like the minimum eyesight requirements under which the driver may be allowed to operate. For businesses involved in fleet operations, it is important that regular driving licence checks are conducted to ensure their validity. This can help the business to run smoothly.

Importance Of Checking All The Driving License Details Of An Applicant Before Hiring Them

As an employer who hires an employee to drive on behalf of their organisation, you have to make sure that the driver holds a valid UK driving licence and entitlements so he can drive the suitable vehicle. The disappointing fact is that there are fleet operators and employers out there who fail to fulfil this most basic task and leave themselves at the risk of facing some serious and damaging consequences.

What's the process of checking a licence with us?

There are two types of consent in our Licence Check system which allows you to check and validate their driving licence. These are:

• E-Consent: This process allows you to grant consent online through our service. Once you've validated and entered all your driving licence details and confirmed consent, your licence record will then upload to your organisations account. (The driver will need access to an email address and a mobile to receive an activation pin).

• Mandate: This is the document process that has been in place for a number of years. This paper document can be created in the system and consent can be granted as soon as we receive the signed copy in our office. This process can be only processed if the driver has signed the document with a wet signature.

Both consent types are valid for 3 years and you can perform a licence check on the driver as many times as you like within that time frame.  Once they are expired, you can update the record on our system, making sure that all the details are up to the date and this will re-generate the consent for another 3 years.

Endorsements/Convictions:

While checking the driver’s licence, it is recommended that you identify all the endorsement codes given in the licence and find out for how long each of them will apply. This will  give you a clear idea about the driver’s attitude towards the idea of safe driving. Also, if you have any questions regarding any prosecutions and are not clear with the details mentioned in the driving licence, it is ideal to contact DVLA and validate the licence details personally. 

Driver Qualification Card (DQC):

The Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) is a qualification for professional lorry, coach and bus drivers. This has been introduced for a number of years as an aim to improve road safety by maintaining a high standard of driving.

If you're looking to hire an employee who will be driving large goods or passenger carrier vehicles, it's essentials that they have this qualification and that they have complete 35 hours of periodic training every 5 years to keep the CPC qualification.

Fines of £1,000 can be imposed for drivers who drive professionally without a CPC and they must carry the DQC with them at all times whenever they are driving professionally.

Medical Conditions

Along with the original driving license, one more thing that every employer must verify and ensure is that the driver is fit enough to drive on the road at all times. In order to ensure this, as an employer you must verify and ask the driver if they suffer from any DVLA notified medical conditions. You can gain a complete list of these medical conditions from Health Conditions and Driving.

If you signed up to our licence check service,  we  would provide medical dates that the driver will go for on vocational categories such as C and CE, as well as their category 'B' car entitlement. 

Furthermore, if you need any clarification concerning any medical condition, you can contact DVLA Medical Group.

All About Checking A Driver’s License Before Hiring Them

Before recruiting any employee to drive for company work, it is crucial that the employer review his/her original driving licence. So far, the licence was accompanied by a paper counterpart, which contained all the details like driving convictions, points, bans and fines issues by courts.

This was abolished last June and is no longer a valid piece of document. This has led to the DVLA putting in place services such as view and share my driving licence. These services allow you to view your current driving licence and allows to see how many points or what categories you hold. 

This service also gives you the option to share the driving licence details with your employer by generating a code from the DVLA, which allows the employer to access their employees' record. However, this is only valid for 21 days.

For corporate organisations, or companies that have 30 drivers or more, the share my driving licence service has proven to be a massive task in regards to administration. It is now recommended that employers check their employees who drive on vocational categories every 3 months to make sure they are valid to drive and are up to date in regards to medical conditions. 

If you use the DVLA service to check your drivers who use vocational entitlements, you would have to do this manually 4 times a year, make sure you get the code within 21 days and keep the paperwork on file to prove that you performed these checks. 

Our service performs automatic checks on a recheck schedule..

Instead of doing the manual process on a regular basis using the DVLA service, you can use our online licence checking platform which is authorised by the DVLA as a third party provider.

What does our service provide?

• Allows drivers to grant consent online using our DVLA e-consent process
• Allow your drivers to give consent manually by use of a paper D796 mandate form
• Allows your company to view your employees driving licence record
• 98.5% of driving licence results available within 20 seconds
• Schedule automatic licence rechecks based on penalty points, conviction and risk for all drivers
• Receive email alerts regarding immediate actions, high risk drivers and expiry alerts

Our process allows to check and validate the UK driving licence, making sure that the driver or employee you are about to hire has the correct entitlements to drive for your organisation.

Stay Safe. Stay free of risk.