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Thousands of Lost Driving Licences Create Security Risk

Posted: Friday, 15 September 2017

Imagine sending in for your driving licence to be returned, only to find it never arrives in the post. Not only would you have to apply for a replacement, but there would also be a nagging concern that the original card wound up in the hands of someone who would use the personal information it contains to steal your identity. Unfortunately, such a scenario is not made up. It is all too real for thousands of British motorists.

According to a 6th September story published by The Sun Online, up to 2,000 driving licences sent to drivers by way of second class post have been lost over the last two years. The government has had to issue 13 replacement licences per week to make up for the losses. Compared to the total number of licences issued every year, 2,000 seems minor by comparison. But the problem is that those licences contain sensitive personal information. They even contain signatures that can be easily forged.

According to the Sun, the government continues to use second class post instead of the more secure 'signed for' delivery option. Their report went on to speculate that fraudsters could be stealing information off driving licences and either selling it online or using it to perpetrate fraud themselves.

Treat Driving Licences like Gold

Our mission of providing real-time licence checks to UK employers doesn't do much to help drivers whose licences may have been lost or stolen, but we have been in this business long enough to know that drivers should be treating their driving licences like gold.

The Sun reported that more than 1,700 of the cases dealt with over the last two years involved licences being returned to drivers who had temporarily lost them due to violations or too many points. The lesson here is pretty straightforward: don't do anything to jeopardise your licence. Once you have it, protect it just the same as you would a credit card or a pile of cash.

As an employer, you have a responsibility to make sure your drivers have valid licences before they take your company cars or vans to the streets. Real-time licence checks are one tool for making that happen. Checking licences keeps you up-to-date on all your drivers and protects you from liability by giving you the opportunity to remove drivers whose licences are no longer valid.

Source: The Sun