The employer should check the driving licences of their employees who may drive on the business of the employer at least every six months. This ensures that the employees actually have a driving licence and forms a very basic part of a risk assessment also.
The driving licence tells you a lot about a driver, from it you can check whether the driver has notified DVLA that they have moved house, whether they have endorsements for driving offences, what their driving history is like and the types of vehicles they can drive. This gives you the employer the ability to make informed judgements about the risks that driver may pose.
Just looking at the hard copy of the licence is not entirely sufficient though, what you need to do is do a check with DVLA of a random sample of those hard copy licence checks. We recommend checking 10% of those licences and if those 10% come back satisfactory then you have exercised your due diligence in ensuring that the licences which have been presented to you. If the 10% check comes back with discrepancies compared to your hard copy check then you should check all your employees’ licences with DVLA.
If you have employees whose job involves driving and their mortgage is reliant on them being at work with you, you need to ask your self whether they will tell you if their licence is endorsed or even removed. I am sure that most employees would be honest enough to tell you that they have lost their licence, but their financial circumstances may tempt them to take a chance and continue driving.
If you do not have a system in place to catch these drivers then you may find yourself in hot water too.
The cost of checking the hard copies of licences is the cost of one of your staff spending about 2 minutes per employee. The check with DVLA will cost between £5 and £10 per employee. All the checks need to be documented and kept to provide you with a written record of your checks. If you want any advice on how best to check your licences, please contact one of our team who will be happy to advise you.
