Posted: Friday, 04 November 2016
Employers that manage a professional fleet of drivers should be completely aware of their responsibility to make sure that they offer clear guidelines for professional performance among their drivers.
If any fleet manager fails to look over their employee records properly, and check licences for signs of poor or reckless driving, then they place themselves and their organisation at significant risk.
The latest digital driving licence checking system in the UK is a significant improvement over the previous paper-based system, but it's fair to say that this solution isn't necessarily fool-proof.
Owners and managers should be checking licences routinely and on a regular basis to make sure that those who are driving for their company have a good record and legal permission to be on the roads.
The only way to truly protect your fleet from the problems that come with reckless or unchecked drivers, is to make driver licence verification a standard part of each employee contract.
If your employees know they must offer consent for you to check their driving licence in order to get a job with your company, then the chances are that the individuals you hire will be less likely to hide important facts about their driving history.
Managers that are responsible for professional fleets need the certainty that can only be offered by a full licence verification service. This service should verify the accuracy of the licence at hand, and the entitlement level of each new driver, as well as establishing audits of existing licences on a regular basis. Remember, it is never enough to simply check a driver licence once and forget about it, as new and updated information can appear on a digital system all of the time.
Digital licence checking may not be a fool proof solution to keeping your fleet safe, but it offers a range of advantages over the traditional solution that fleet managers had to deal with.
With digital licence checking, you ensure that you get a greater amount of information about the various codes that your drivers may have come into contact with during their driving career.
What's more, the versatility of a digital system means that it is upgraded more frequently than other paper or standard driving licences. This is why the UK made the change to digital checking in the first place. Just don't forget that you need to be vigilant too.