Posted: Tuesday, 10 June 2014
UK's Channel 4 premiered a comedy show known as Whose Line Is It Anyway in 1988. The improvisational sketch programme included four performers who basically made up the entire show as things went along. The show's tag line was 'where everything is made up and the points don't matter'. Based on a recent report from Wales Online, one wonders whether bad drivers in the UK are part of an improvisational comedy routine.
According to the report, there were 177 drivers, just in the postcode that includes Cardiff, still on the road even after amassing at least 12 penalty points. If you are unaware, 12 points accrued in a three-year period is the cut-off for possessing a valid driving licence. An automatic ban is supposed to kick in when a person reaches 12 points unless an exceptional hardship can be demonstrated. Apparently, there are a lot of exceptional hardships in Wales.
Wales Online reports that one driver in the postcode was allowed to continue driving even with 20 points on his licence. However, he was not the lucky winner of the highest point total. Another man from Newport was still driving with 24 points. The problem also goes well beyond the Cardiff region. In Swansea, there are 137 drivers with licences possessing in excess of 12 points.
Road safety advocates are understandably dismayed that drivers with so many points are being allowed to continue driving. One organisation, the highway safety organisation known as Brake, contends that allowing the drivers to continue poses a very real danger to everyone else on the roads. It is calling for an immediate end to the practice.
Brake Senior Community Engagement Officer Philip Goose told Wales Online "allowing these drivers to stay on our roads puts every member of the public using our streets and roads in danger and makes a mockery of the points system." We do not disagree.
There is no point in getting into the politics of the problem right now. What is most important for you, as a business owner, is to know exactly what your drivers are doing with their licences. The government might allow a driver with 24 points to continue as usual, but you cannot afford to do the same. An individual with so many points has already proved a reckless disregard for law that could eventually come back to haunt your company in the event of an accident.
Your best bet is to employ a licence check organisation like ours. We have direct access to the DVLA records that would indicate an excessive number of points on an individual's licence. What's more, our licence checking service gets the data directly back to you quickly and efficiently. You will be able to know right away whether you should hire a new applicant based on what his or her licence looks like. You will also be able to keep track of your current drivers as well.
Source: Wales Online