UK Driver Licence Checks by Third Party Providers

It is important for employers in the UK to check that their employees who drive company vehicles or their own vehicles on the companies behalf have a valid UK driving licence.

UK driver licence checks can be carried out in several ways. A driver can check his own licence details at the DVLA website by keying in their 16 digit driving licence number, national insurance number and postcode to create a one-time check code that is valid for 21 days. The code can be shared with an employer in order for them to check the validity, entitlements, penalty points, disqualifications and other details. They cannot directly access any driver’s records due to data protection rules. If a company employs a lot of drivers, this can be a very time consuming process. For example, if a driver doesn’t provide the code to the employer within the 21 day period, this will expire and the process would have to be started again.

An easier way is to assign the task to a DVLA third party driving licence checking service to carry out a UK driver licence checks . As soon as employees grant consent through the online e-consent process or sign a D796 mandate document, employers can access their driver’s details in their secure account. The result will reveal information such as licence and photocard expiry dates, any current or previous endorsements within the past 5 years and what entitlements the driver holds.

Both consent types are valid for 3 years and employers can check their drivers as many times as they wish, as long as the consent is still valid. 

Driving Licence Checks - Comprehensive Driver Checks

If you are a fleet management company or have employees driving their own or your company’s vehicles, then you need to make sure that they all hold a valid UK driving licence so they are able to drive for your organisation.   

It is not uncommon for drivers to provide incomplete or incorrect details to their employers, so they need to make sure they hold the correct entitlements and licence, and this can be achieved by signing up to a service that provides driving licence checks for employers.

A third-party service that links to the DVLA allows this to occur, either by signing a D796 mandate form or completing the online e-consent process. As soon as the document have been sent in to be checked or the online process has been completed, the driving licence record will be viewable in your own secure account to access and view.

As soon as the initial consent process has been completed, employers won’t have to worry about any manual and admin work in the future, as drivers will go into an automatic recheck schedule based on the risk of the driver (low, medium or high depending on how many points they’ve got). Every time a check is performed in your account, users of the company account will receive email notifications so they can view and access detailed licence reports, such as expiry dates, entitlements, licence status etc.

This is all secure and in one place, to save you time and money.

Importance of Driving Licence Checks for Employers

For a large and busy fleet management company, it can be very difficult to keep ahead and on top of things, validating employees driving licences can be one of those issues. It’s a long process if you conduct your driving licence checks manually and some employees can easily slip the net in terms of being checked and validated. If something goes wrong, your business may need to pay huge penalties depending on the severity of the issue. Hence, having a driving licence checking service in place for your organisation allows you to check your employees who drive on company business, to make sure they hold a valid UK licence.

One solution to this problem is to find a way to validate and monitor driver/licence data accurately and quickly. At Licence Check, they have introduced a validation service into their davis platform where companies can carry out driver identity checks by simply capturing the data from the licence card. This validation process helps to identify forged documents. The Licence CDR (Card Data Reader) is a simple software used for this validation process.

Role of The Licence CDR in Driving Licence Checking and Validation

The Licence Card Data Reader reads the licence information in a single pass. You just need to drop the card into the device reader and it reads both the sides simultaneously. The Licence CDR uses ultraviolet light technology for identifying forged data and captures photos and holograms from the ID card. If all the information read is correct, it then automatically uploads it to the internal system, where it gets stored as a part of driver's record. It has a capacity to read records of multiple formats, such as international identity cards.

Benefits of Driving Licence Checking and Validation

•        As an employer, safety of the organisation and the driver is your responsibility. Sometimes your employee's licence information can be misleading. Hence, driving licence checks for employers is necessary as it saves customers from potential risks and business from unnecessary problems.

•        Electronic licence checking process saves you a lot of time as it is valid for three years.

•        Reduces the risk of forged documentation and helps capturing fraud identity.

•        Data is secured and available 24/7.

•        Employers can avoid potential penalties under safety legislation.

•         Once the validation process is completed, the employer can view the licence data to make sure it is valid and that the employee is available to drive on company business.

How Driving Licence Check and Validation is Helpful To An Organisation

In earlier days, fleet management companies used to conduct manual checking of their employee's driving licence, which was extremely time consuming and an administrative burden. Now, real-time licence validation services have been introduced and have made UK driver licence check and monitoring process much faster and easier.  The data includes all the relevant information such as driver's name, date of birth, address, and other driving details like entitlement, disqualifications, and penalties. It also provides a quick response with accurate licence/driver information, once the driver has granted consent.

A service that Licence Check provides, davis and their CDR (Card Data Reader) allows for smarter, faster, and a cost-effective way to validate and capture the licence data. The CDR reads both sides simultaneously and captures all the data including photo and holograms. The device checks for certain security features of the licence to make sure that the licence is not forged. The entire process of licence validation and security check takes very little time. The Licence CDR is a small and robust unit and it requires a USB cable for power supply. The Local PC has to install the software to drive the reader and it has user-friendly features, hence it doesn't require any special training for usage. Here the driver just needs to drop the card into the slot and once the unit has read the data, the card automatically pops out.

What you get as an employer?

•        The device ensures that the driving licence photocard is valid and legit.

•        Allows you to also validate CPC and Tacho Cards if your company have drivers who drive on vocational entitlements.

•        Keeps your fleet valid and up to date.

•         Check the status of your driver by the consent process to make sure they are okay to drive for your company.