Driving your business – are you aware if your employees are driving when banned?

If you have employees who drive on behalf of your organisation, how often are you carrying out driving licence checks?

The DVLA currently states it is up to you as an employer to check your employee’s driving licences with a recommendation this is conducted every three months.

There is no system in place to allow employers to be notified if an employee has points or is banned from driving; allowing a ‘loophole’ for drivers who have been banned to continue driving until a licence check is carried out.

Whilst we like to think that any changes would be notified by employees there has been cases where drivers have been caught driving whilst banned, which in one recent case has resulted in the tragic death of other road users.

What does this mean for you as an employer?

From June 2015 the paper counterpart of licences have been replaced with an online real-time portal.

Failing to conduct and document that licences have been checked on the new DVLA portal could leave your organisation and senior staff exposed.

This could result in prosecution for failing to have the correct systems in place or your company motor policy avoiding claims for non-disclosure.

This can have a huge impact in terms of time, costs and reputation of your organisation.

Whilst licence checking can be seen as an unnecessary burden it is vital that your organisation is confident in the systems and checks in place for whenever people are expected to drive for work.

Motor fleet risk management can help reduce the frequency and severity of claims, if this is something that hasn’t been implemented within your organisation you should contact your broker for further information.

John Goodacre is Account Executive at D E Ford Insurance Brokers, providing bespoke insurance packages for businesses and charitable organisations.