The passing of the paper driving licence went largely unnoticed, but as an employer you still need to check the licence of anyone using their own vehicle or a company owned vehicle.
Why?
Two reasons really – firstly to make sure they actually have a licence to drive…what could happen to your firm and it’s reputation if an employee injured someone (or worse) and they didn’t have a valid licence and were therefore uninsured? Secondly, if they are driving a company vehicle, your insurer will almost certainly need to know if they have any convictions…and if they haven’t been notified, it could affect your insurance.
What’s made me write this article now?
Well, I like to use real-life examples and this morning we’ve had just that. One of our client’s has a motor fleet policy which is due for renewal in two months. We got in touch to check for any changes and were advised that one employee had a conviction, but they weren’t sure of the details. We recommended that they visit the DVLA website to get their employees to “share” their licence information with their employer. They got the information about the one driver but it also highlighted that another employee had six penalty points which the employer knew nothing about!
What could have happened?
If the driver had an accident, they could have found themselves uninsured. But what if the driver had actually been banned from driving and the employer did not know?
Fortunately, in this case their insurer only needed to be advised of drivers with MORE than 6 penalty points…but not all insurers are so flexible.
Not worth the risk
If you have company vehicles or you allow employees to drive their own vehicles for your business, make sure you check their licence every year. Get them to “share” their licence details with you by going to https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence. They will be given a code which you can then use for 21 days to get your records up to date.
If you need advice about your business motor insurance then please get in touch by calling us on the number above.