Posted: Tuesday, 07 October 2014
Have you ever wondered how much UK drivers spend every year on replacement driving licences? Probably not. Nonetheless, the DVLA says it is about £20 million. The money is spent to replace lost, stolen, or damaged licences, along with those who procure new licences when a new photograph is necessary.
The DVLA further claims that 1.18 million duplicate licence documents were issued in the 2013/2014 financial year. That works out to about 3,000 documents every single day. At £20 per copy, that is a lot of money being spent to replace driving licences.
An additional 7 million replacement licences were issued to people who had a change of address or other pertinent information that didn't require a new photo. They are not included in the previous statistics because there is no fee involved. Motorists are only charged for a new photo licence or when a replacement is ordered because of loss, theft, or damage.
As for tax discs, motorists ordered more than 1 million duplicates during the same period. However, the elimination of tax discs beginning October 1 (2014) will put an end to that. The push for digitisation of tax records means some measure of savings for both motorists and the Government.
Some observers have noted that the number of replacement tax discs this past year amounts to 3% of the driving population. Some 20% of UK drivers have needed a replacement licence within the last several years. This is alarming in the sense that one would expect drivers to be more careful of protecting their licences. The fact that 20% need replacement documents suggests we are not as careful with our licences as we ought to be.
As a company owner or manager, the statistics we mentioned should be a reminder of your obligation to protect your business from potential employees with licence issues. If you maintain a fleet of company vehicles, no matter how small, you also need to make sure that all workers with permission to operate them have valid licences.
The transition to digitisation should make it easier for officials to keep accurate information on Britain's drivers. Digitisation is also expected to make the licence checking process easier. Having said that, you can make the task of checking licences for your business as easy as possible by partnering with Fleet Licence Check. We take all the hassle out of driving licence checking by doing the work for you.
Fleet Licence Check is approved by the DVLA to undertake licence checks on behalf of our customers. Today we run roughly 20,000 checks every year in addition to providing claims services for our clients. Here at Fleet Licence Check, our number one goal is to help motoring companies manage their fleets by providing important services.
If your company is in need of either driving licence checks or claims management, please get in touch with us at your earliest convenience. We can provide one-off services or put together a complete package to meet the needs of your company.