Posted: Friday, 11 March 2016
In years gone by, fleet operators would need to collect, manually check, and store paper copies of their employee's driving licences. This required a great deal of effort and resources from an administrative point of view and wasn't exactly very efficient either.
In addition to the time it took to manually verify each and every employee's credentials, manual licence checks also cost more money in staff salaries too. What's more, it was fairly easy for employees to present "old" paper licenses that did not show recent penalty points or other offences.
Fleet operators would then run the risk of non-compliance and put the safety of other road users in danger. But thankfully, things changed last year and a better way of checking vehicle licenses was introduced.
In June 2015, the paper counterpart of UK driving licenses was scrapped by the DVLA and deemed no longer valid. It was replaced by an online service, which would not only save motorists money (the cost of replacing a paper counterpart was £20) and reduce unnecessary red tape, but also benefit employers and vehicle hire companies.
It allowed fleet operators to enlist the services of companies like Fleet Licence Check to find out whether employees were qualified to drive their vehicles, but also discover details about penalty points or other offences too. However, how can you be sure that this process is more accurate than checking the paper counterpart manually?
At Fleet Licence Check, we have direct access to the DVLA's own database in real time. This is done through our secure online portal, which is also audited by the DVLA. As a result, we can reveal:
With this up-to-date and error-free information, you can make the most informed decision possible of whether or not an employee is legally qualified to drive for your business and if so, what type of vehicle they are allowed to operate by law.
Without the paper counterpart, digital licence checks are the only way you can completely satisfy your legal obligations. Failure to do so could also put other road users at risk and invalidate any insurance policies you have on your vehicles.