Friday, January 30, 2015
Jaama predicts increased demand for driver licence checking service with paper counterpart abolition
The abolition of the paper counterpart to the photocard driving licence on June 8, 2015 will lead to increased demand for driver licence checks, according to Jaama.
The DVLA is planning to introduce a free of charge online service for employers to check the validity of employees’ driving licences before the counterpart is abolished.
While exact details of the how the DVLA’s service will function have yet to be announced, it is understood that database access will be on an individual driver basis.
Jaama managing director Martin Evans believes the administrative burden that will cause employers will result in the company winning more driver licence checking business.
He said: “Organisations that already use Jaama for driver licence checking will continue to benefit from a hugely efficient service even when the DVLA launches its own offering.
“What’s more, the DVLA service will, we believe, prove to be administratively time consuming as each employees’ driver licence record will have to be accessed individually. With best practice determining that checks are carried out quarterly on employees with a large number of points on their licence, the whole process is likely to be a major burden for many employers.”
He also reminded employers that they have a duty of care responsibility to check the competency and capability of at-work drivers which starts with assessing validity of a driving licence on recruitment and periodically thereafter.
He said: “Employers should be putting in place licence checking measures now and not wait until the abolition of the paper counterpart to the photocard driving licence when they could find they do not have the internal resources available to effectively and efficiently manage the process providing them with a clear audit trail.”
DATED: 30.01.15
FEED: FN
