The Association for Driving Licence Verification (ADLV) is encouraging fleets to increase the frequency of driving licence checks on high-risk drivers.
New ADLV recommendations advise monthly checks for drivers with more than nine points. The ADLV also states that companies should not rely on employees self-declaring when they receive penalty points on their licence.
“Driving remains one of the most hazardous activities British employees can be expected to undertake on behalf of their employers,” said Mark Sugden, Secretary of the ADLV. “Britain has a high number of road fatalities and, sadly, between five and six hundred each year involve people or vehicles in work-related crashes.
“For such potentially high-risk work, one would expect driving licence checks to be frequent and thorough. But, as a recent poll revealed, some companies only run checks once a year, and many still rely on employees to inform them of any changes. When someone’s job is on the line, the sad fact is that relying on trust simply isn’t enough.”
A recent RAC Insurance survey discovered that only 13 percent of respondents would inform their employers of penalty points that they incurred, with 25 percent already having points that they had previously failed to disclose.
“Many fleets run no follow-up checks, only checking documentation properly when new employees join,” said Sugden. “This means there could well be employees who are no longer legally entitled to drive behind the wheel, leaving their organisation wide open to considerable fines, and, in the case of an incident or crash, severe reputational damage.
“Now that licence checks can easily be made online, there is no excuse not to automate and streamline the checking processes. This one move could contribute significantly to safer roads and fleets that ‘know their drivers’ better.”
The ADLV points out that recent increases in penalty points for mobile phone use (up to six points) mean that drivers can accumulate enough points to lose their licence faster than ever.
