If an employee has points on their licence, it may raise some red flags about their reliability behind the wheel.
In this post we’ll discuss how to check if an employee has points on their licence, and how this and other background checks can help with recruitment and risk management.
How to Check an Employee’s Driving Licence Information
The DVLA stores information about every driver’s licence, including the vehicles they can legally drive, and whether they have any penalty points or disqualifications.
Checking an employee’s driving licence information can form an essential part of your driver screening procedures, both during recruitment and on an ongoing basis.
Do You Need Permission to Access Employee Driving Licence Information?
It is illegal to obtain someone’s personal information without their permission. If you want to check if an employee has points on their licence, you will first need to ask them for permission.
If your employee consents to letting you look up their driving licence information, they’ll need to contact the DVLA to request a check code. You will then need to enter this check code, along with the last eight characters of the employee’s driving licence number, on the DVLA’s website.
You can also request this information by post. Head here for more information.
What If The Employee Won’t Give You Permission?
Your employees are within their rights to refuse you permission to look up their driving licence information. This is why you need to make your policies and procedures clear from the start.
If an employee drives as part of their job, then you could specify in their employment contract the need for a valid and clean driving licence. And as part of this, you reserve the right to look up certain details about their driving history. But of course, you will only ever do this with the employee’s express permission.
Employees should understand that a valid driver’s licence is a vital part of the job. So most, if not all, employees should be happy to cooperate. If you make your policies clear as early as possible, then employees should also understand that if they refuse to cooperate, then their job may be at risk.
How Often Should You Check an Employee Has Points on Their Licence?
Different fleets have different policies here. Most fleets will perform a licence check at the point of employment, as part of their overall screening process. After this, some fleet managers will perform routine checks every six months or so.
Other fleets may only perform checks following accidents or incidents on the road, and others may choose to perform random checks throughout the year.
An employee’s circumstances can change at any time, even overnight. This is why ongoing checks are an important part of fleet risk management, as they’ll help you identify any potential issues among drivers in your fleet.
How Do Business Manage Regular Driving Licence Checks?
It can be time consuming to contact the DVLA yourself every time you want to check an employee’s licence. Some businesses offer dedicated driving licence checking services. They’ll perform the checks on your behalf as often as you need them while ensuring that everything is compliant with all relevant DVLA regulations.
What To Do If You Find an Employee Has Points on Their Licence
Should you hire drivers with points on their licence? And should you immediately fire any existing employees if you find they have points on their licence, or unspent convictions?
It all depends on how many points the employee has, and on the specific nature of the offence that resulted in the penalty. A driver with a small number of points on their licence for a minor speeding offence is unlikely to cause you any trouble, though you may choose to flag this driver for further training.
It might be a different story if the driver has any convictions involving drinks or drugs though. Again, it’s up to you whether any drink or drug convictions should result in immediate dismissal. But perhaps you’ll choose to carry out more regular drink and drug screening procedures for any drivers with prior convictions.
Once again, whatever approach you choose to take when it comes to penalty points, it’s important to make your policies and procedures clear, so that every driver in your fleet is familiar with your position from the start.
You can read our full guide to effective driver screening procedures.
Driver Screening and Fleet Insurance
John Donaghy, Senior Manager, Commercial Motor and Fleet Risks says:
“Driver screening is a vital part of your fleet risk management strategy. Keeping tabs on how your drivers behave on the roads could help you prevent accidents in the long-term. And for this reason, if you can evidence your driver screening policies to your insurer, it could help you make savings on the cost of cover.”
For more information on how we can help you and your fleet, get in touch with us on 020 8290 9099 or email us at commercial.motor@anthonyjones.com.
