News

Checking Driving Licences

On the 8th June 2015 the paper counterpart of the DVLA driving licence was abolished. So how do employers now carry out checks on employee's driving licences if they are driving on Company business?

There are three options.

Option One: You can ask a third party to carry out a check for you (Practical HR offer this under their referencing service for clients).

Option Two: You can ask the employee to show you their personal online driving record. This can be accessed by logging on to the link https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence and following the screen. This will essentially show any endorsements that would have been shown on the old paper copy.

Option Three: you can register for the new Share Driving Licence service. This allows an individual to generate a unique code which will then allow third parties, such as employers, to check their driving record. For more information follow the link below: https://dvladigital.blog.gov.uk/2015/03/20/share-driving-licence-private-beta-blog/

But please remember under no circumstances must you access an employee's online driving record without their permission. It's a criminal offence.

You should carry out driving licence checks on employees who drive on Company business (whether using their own vehicles or a company vehicle). We would recommend such checks are carried out at least annually and you should have a provision in your company car policy, handbook or contract that requires an employee to immediately notify you of any changes to their licence.