Check your drivers

The risks for employers are considerable – if an employee is involved in an accident whilst driving for work, but does not have a valid licence, the employer could be held responsible. Hudson Kapel’s Driver Compliance Check tackles this risk by automating the process of checking and monitoring drivers’ licences. By using the system, a company’s Fleet or HR department can be secure in the knowledge that their duty of care responsibilities are being supported effectively. “Whilst most employers will be confident that their employees are honest, and will inform them if there are any changes to their licence, there is always a minority that will try to dodge the checks – especially if they’ve got something to hide,” says Simon Withey, MD of Hudson Kapel. The Hudson Kapel Driver Compliance Check provides an automated service that checks a driver’s licence when they first join a company – eliminating the risk of a duplicate of an old licence being used. The system also ensures that whenever a driver has points added to their licence, or is disqualified, the employer will be informed. Hudson Kapel checks each driver’s details with live data from the DVLA, and produces a detailed report delivered to the employer’s desk top from its secure web based reporting system. And as well as checking the basic facts about a driver’s licence, the Driver Compliance Check ensures that the driver has the right licence for the vehicles they will be driving on the company’s behalf. With so many changes in the law and traffic regulations this is vital expert knowledge for a business. “We recommend that drivers’ licences should be checked twice annually for all employees who drive on company business,” says Withey. “And importantly, we recommend that this includes not just those drivers who have been allocated a permanent company car, but also employees who are driving their own vehicles on company business.”