Driving Licence checks – how often should you check your drivers?

Licence checks – how often do you check your drivers?

Managing road risk starts with checking your drivers are qualified for the vehicle they are using.

Most recruitment processes involve all kinds of checks – does the person have the necessary skills, qualifications, references required for the role? Unless the candidate is a vocational driver, or driving is a central part of the role, checking their driving licence is easily overlooked. In fact, if your employee will ever have to drive in connection with their job, a regular licence check is a legal necessity, stipulated by Section 87 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and the Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007.

While statute does not lay down a minimum interval for checking licences – it is the employer’s responsibility to know that an employee is qualified to drive a specific class of vehicle, and the driver’s responsibility to hold such a valid qualification – official guidance says you should check during recruitment, and then at regular intervals.

Many companies, such as Willmott Dixon Group, check licences during recruitment and then at intervals determined by the driver’s individual risk score, with high-risk drivers checked monthly. This strategy has lowered its risk liability.

How often should employers check drivers licences?

Good practice is to check all driving licences at least twice a year – including your grey fleet drivers. The risk-based approach is also outlined in the FORS Standard (section D1, page 32).

Checking driver licences online

With employee consent, it is easy to check driving licence status online with the Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). Many companies choose to use a third-party service, such as FleetCheck Licence Assured, which can remove the administrative burden and ensure that licence checking is comprehensive and well-managed.

Peter Golding, MD at FleetCheck, said: “Checking driving licences, and ensuring they are rechecked regularly, is a key part of your responsibilities as an employer whose staff use vehicles, whether company or employee-owned. You need to adopt a risk profile approach – the more points on a licence, the higher the risk and the more often they need to be rechecked.”

He says that licence checking is not just a statutory responsibility, but an ethical one, and it also underpins fleet insurance, as unqualified drivers are also uninsured drivers.

What does licence checking tell you?

Driving licences hold a wealth of essential information including:

• Name, address and date of birth
• The categories of vehicle they are entitled to drive
• How long the driver has been qualified
• Any points or convictions from previous offences.
• Whether the driver has informed the DVLA of any notifiable medical conditions.
• Whether the driver is required to wear glasses or contact lenses for driving.

This provides the basis for further conversation and assessment. Someone may have qualified to drive several years ago but not driven regularly or recently.

They may also may have learned to drive in a time or place at which driving conditions were less challenging or regulation less stringent.

If someone holds a non-UK licence, or has trained or driven mainly in a different country, then their learning, situational awareness and driving behaviours can be quite different from those of individuals who have learned and driven mainly on UK roads. Regulation, driving culture, the appointed side of the road, the language and purpose of road signs, and the wider risks surrounding travel (weather, remoteness, congestion, crime, road rage) – all these things are culturally dependent so may not automatically align with requirements for UK driving.

Licence points – an indicator of driver risk level

The number of points on a licence indicate a driver’s risk level. As points are accrued for driving offences – such as speeding or mobile phone use – they are an immediate flag that a driver may need to be educated about the company’s expectations of safe driving and monitored to ensure they achieve them. Points are likely to be the tip of the iceberg in terms of driving behaviour, as they represent the number of times the person was caught breaking the law.

For context, almost three million GB drivers had points on their licences according to an FOI request fulfilled by DVLA in March 2024.

More worryingly, almost 100,000 have nine points which typically makes them one offence away from revocation. A further 24,000 have 10 points or more. Magistrates can allow drivers to keep their licences if they claim to need it for work – despite the accumulated points suggesting they are high risk individuals who serially offend. The highest points total currently against a GB licence is 126.

Points remain on a licence for either four or 11 years depending upon the severity of the offence.

Points accrual is a key reason to check licences regularly. Points accrual indicates a pattern of risky behaviour.

For most drivers 12 points is sufficient for their licence to be revoked. Not all employees will admit to this if it means that their job may be at risk, but it is essential that an employer does not allow a disqualified driver or a very high-risk driver to drive on their behalf.

Ideally drivers should volunteer any licence change information, and this requirement should be stated in your driving for work policy.