Checking employees’ driving licences. The topic itself is something that you must concern yourself with as an employer. There are various laws, regulations and best practices for driving guidances in place when it comes to UK driving licence checks.
Fact is, as an employer, you are fundamentally responsible for checking employees’ driving licences. Whether you operate a small fleet of a few vans, or a larger fleet containing HGVs weighing over 3.5 tonnes each: Your responsibility to carry out checking employees’ driving licences still stands strong.
What should you be aware of as an employer? How many licence checks should you perform a year, and how can you make your administration needs more efficient? This post answers these important questions and lays out how certain fleet admin solutions make your life easier.
What are the UK driving licence check laws, and how do you stay compliant?
There is some notable legislation that you as an employer should definitely be aware of.
1. Road Traffic Act of 1988
This piece of legislation states two important things that you should know. First of all, it is an offence for an employee to drive vehicles without a valid driving licence. Secondly, it is an offence for the employer to permit their employees from driving vehicles if they don’t have a valid licence.
In essence, checking employees’ driving licences to avoid legal penalties is essential.
2. The Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974
According to the UK government, regular driving licence checks are an essential part of keeping your workplace safe and proper. Failure to comply with this Act can result in individual fines, ranging from £180,000 to £20,000,000.
Therefore, performing regular driving licence checks aren’t just a good practice to uphold health and safety standards at work. They are also a key catalyst in avoiding the above-mentioned fines.
Read More: Create A Safe Working Experience
3. Data Protection Law of 1988
When carrying out driving licence checks, drivers must have consented to the fact that you are checking their driving licences. It also states that permission has to be codified in some form.
This means that it is not enough to simply take your employee’s word. Moreover, licence data has to be stored securely and not be tampered with.
UK licence checks – checking your employees’ driving licences, and who do you inform?
You can carry out and inform the government about checking your employees’ driving licences in multiple ways. One option is that you can manually check someone’s driving licence information one by one via the gov.uk website.
However, this process can take time. Nowadays, you can acquire specialised fleet admin solutions that speed up this process, like Fleet Admin by Vimcar. This tool is specifically designed to make your life easier and you can process a whole batch of employee driving licences at once. It also stores driving licence data, keeping you compliant.
Processing multiple employees’ driving licences at once also simultaneously informs the government. This takes care of multiple tasks at once and frees up time for you to spend on growing your business.
How often should you carry out UK driving licence checks?
The legally recommended amount of times a year for checking your employees’ driving licences is blurry. However, you must check and process your employees’ driving licences at least once a year. As a general rule of thumb, however, the more the better. It pays to carry out more UK licence checks to remain legally compliant.
Read more: UK vehicle tracking laws
How do you benefit from Vimcar’s Fleet Admin for UK licence checks?
Vimcar’s Fleet Admin automatically reminds you of UK driving licence checks. You can also manually set reminders for multiple driving licence checks and processing. Fleet Admin also sends reminders directly to your desktop, tablet or mobile via your own Vimcar login credentials.
This means that you never miss checking your employees’ driving licences again, potentially saving you countless money in fines and legal problems. The tool also sets automatic reminders, not just for UK licence checks, but also for other important deadlines. This includes MOTs and external garage vehicle repairs.
Read more: how fleet software can help with operators licence checking
How does Fleet Admin by Vimcar also help keep you legally compliant?
Fleet Admin is also specifically designed to take care of your administrative tasks. It contains automated features that digitalise your daily processes, taking the effort out of your work. It helps keep your business organised by:
- Setting up automatic vehicle MOT reminders
- Providing accurate vehicle and employee driving licence data
- Keeping all your data in one place
- Viewing vehicle data for preventative maintenance checks
- Tracking your fleet expenditure analysis
Summary: Checking employees’ driving licences and more with Vimcar’s Fleet Admin
When it comes to your business administration needs, it pays to modernise your tasks through digitalised admin processes. Vimcar’s Fleet Admin tool can be acquired separately or as part of Vimcar’s Fleet Geo vehicle tracking tool.
Read More: What Is Fleet Tracking?
