Licence Bureau analysis reveals most common driving licence failures across 250,000 business drivers

• Provisional drivers cause companies most headaches on initial licence check
• Expired licences and disqualified drivers are biggest issues at recheck stage
• Potential licence recheck failures reinforce how a driver’s licence can change very quickly

Licence Bureau has revealed that over five (5.42) in every 1,000 company car, van and truck drivers do not hold a valid licence to legally drive their company vehicle.

And without a licence checking service in place, the companies empowering those five or six employees to drive a company vehicle would be breaking the law and compromising their Duty of Care obligations.
Licence Bureau analysed over a quarter of a million licence checks it made during 2013 and has highlighted the top five reasons for business drivers failing initial licence checks and subsequent rechecks.

At the initial licence check stage, Licence Bureau experienced the ‘over 5 in 1,000’ drive failure rate, with provisional licence holders causing fleets the biggest headaches. Provisional drivers cannot legally drive unaccompanied or on motorways so these drivers slipping through the net could cause major issues for fleets.

Drivers whose licences are revoked, as a result of failing to add penalty points when convicted, expired licence holders and disqualified drivers made up the remainder of the licence failure list.
Licence Bureau’s recheck system notifies its customers of any further issues with employees, but its statistics reinforce the need for rechecking a driver’s licence regularly

At the licence recheck stage, the potential rate of failure according to Licence Bureau’s statistics fall to just over two per thousand (2.056) and the reasons are very different from initial checks. Drivers with expired licences are top of the list followed by disqualified drivers.

Without a licence recheck both issues would have been missed by the employer, potentially causing huge Duty of Care issues as neither driver would be insured in the event of an accident. The provisional licence issue disappears at the recheck stage as these drivers have been immediately dealt with at the initial check.

“The aim is to highlight the growing problem to companies of failing to audit employees’ current driving and vehicle documents,” explained Malcolm Maycock, managing director of Licence Bureau.

“Our top five lists should help employees understand the issues and potential consequences for non compliance.”
“Companies are often surprised at what notifications our systems generate at the recheck stage and how the status of both driver and licence can change in just a few months,” he added.

Top 5 driving licence check failures

Sample size:
253,332 licence checks comprising 83,731 initial checks and 169,601 licence rechecks in 2013