Posted: Tuesday, 01 July 2014
Members of the Freight Transport Association (FTA) have the opportunity to take advantage of the organisation's licence check programme. To date, the FTA has undertaken some 10,000 checks on behalf of its members. Surprisingly, it turns out that one in every 250 commercial drivers does not possess a valid licence to operate the company vehicle assigned to him or her. That is an astounding number in an industry that relies so heavily on licencing to ensure safe drivers.
The biggest problem appears to be drivers with provisional licences. The law regarding provisional licences says that such drivers are not allowed to drive unaccompanied. Furthermore, they are not allowed to drive on motorways under any circumstances. Yet without an adequate licence check programme in place, a company may have no idea that an individual's licence is provisional.
The remaining three reasons for most licence check failures are as follows:
The FTA says that implementation of a licence check and recheck system can achieve significant driver compliance within just six weeks. On the other hand, not checking and rechecking licences open a company up to quite a bit of liability. It is not a risk worth taking.
The current system of licence checks makes the task incredibly burdensome to Britain's small and medium-sized businesses. Far too many do not have a system in place because there's just too much work involved. A licence-checking programme from a company like Fleet Licence Check changes the game by doing all of the legwork for you. Our platform and services make it extremely easy for you to keep track of your drivers and their licences without any extra effort on your part.
Our service makes it possible for you to check all new hires before actually bringing them in. However, it goes further than that. We can also run routine rechecks based on your schedule, in order to make sure you are never putting a risky driver on the road. The best part of all is that you need do nothing except provide us with driver information. We will take it from there.
Our fleet licence check programme makes it as easy as possible for you to maintain legal compliance among your drivers. Simply provide us with the necessary information for every driver in your system, then sit back and watch for the results. These will be delivered directly to you by way of e-mail.
Undertaking regular licence checks on your drivers should be a normal part of how you do business. If your company employs more than five drivers using company vehicles, you owe it to yourself, your company and the public at large to make sure your drivers are legally allowed to operate. We invite you to contact Fleet Licence Check if you would like to know more about our service options. Trust us when we say that you cannot afford to operate without licence checking.
Source: Fleet News