Not worth the paper?
We were setting up a new client last week, and while we were going through the handbook we got the section about company cars.
The client was very pleased with themselves as they had a process to take a photocopy of all employees’ driving licences, both the card and the paper format, when they started with the company.
Unfortunately, one of those photocopies is not worth the paper it’s printed on.
It was back in June 2015 that the paper counterpart to the licence was abolished, and it has had no legal status since that date, so if that’s part of your process, then I suggest a little bit of a rethink.
The good news is that is an easy way to find out if your staff have any driving endorsements – ask them to give you access to their online record:
All you do is visit this link – https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence – punch in a few numbers and any penalties will be shown on screen.
It’s a bit like a DBS check in that it gives you a snapshot of their licence at that moment, but the information is much quicker to access and in real time.
In our client handbooks, there’s a paragraph that requires drivers of company cars to provide access to their licence on an “as requested” basis, but at a minimum every year.
If you have staff driving their own cars for business, you should also check their licence for endorsements regularly.
And if anyone tries to show you their paper licence, tell them to go shred it!