Posted: Thursday, 07 January 2016
Penalty points and other traffic endorsements are something that fleet operators should take very seriously when reviewing their drivers.
Fleet drivers may have offences on their licence that you do not know about, and they could be breaking company policy and the law by driving your vehicles.
For example, how would you react if you discovered that one of your drivers had a CD40 endorsement? That's the offence code for causing death by careless driving while unfit through drink and it must remain on a licence for 11 years.
Or how about an MS40? That's the offence code for driving with uncorrected defective eyesight or refusing an eyesight test. Would you still be happy letting your driver out on to the road if there were any questions about their eyesight?
It's important to also consider that company car drivers may have their vehicle registered in their name to their address. So speeding points will be sent to them. Our experience is that a lot of drivers don't share the endorsement of penalty points with their employers, because they don't want the hassle. Are you comfortable with that?
The solution to discovering a driver's history lies with the DVLA. The DVLA operates an online service that allows a driver to share their licence information with somebody else. All your company had to do is request access from the driver.
The way this service works is as follows:
Driving license information that's accessible includes all penalty points and endorsements that have not expired. So for example, penalty points remain on a licence for 4 years and a CD40 offence remains on a licence for 11 years. This service also lets you see what vehicles a person can drive, so Category C and C+E for example or D1 and D1+E.
The benefit to using this service for fleet operators is that you can keep tabs on drivers and ensure that they are complying with the law and company policy.