Businesses must regularly check their employees’ licences for new endorsements or penalties, as part of their Duty of Care. However, many employers underestimate the risk of nominated drivers – non-employed individuals who also use company-owned cars, such as partners or spouses. Despite not being employed by the company, these drivers still pose the same level of risk, and therefore must be equally monitored alongside employees.

According to Licence Link – the online driving licence, CPC and Tacho card checking service – this is not just best practice, it’s a necessity. Failure to comply could result in serious consequences for Fleet Managers – from incurring fines to being held liable for any damage caused by a nominated driver.

To minimise the risk, Fleet and HR Managers must check both contracted employees and nominated drivers on a regular basis for…

• Medical conditions
• Driving licence convictions
• Endorsements and points
• Accidents and incident involvement
• Licence expiries

It’s essential to ensure the HR or Fleet policy includes a routine checking schedule which accounts for nominated drivers, as standard. Failure to do so could result in:

• The business being held liable for a serious road incident
• Increased insurance costs (or invalidation) of the group policy
• Disqualified drivers illegally using a company car
• Corporate loss of credibility, if drivers are not managed correctly 

To keep costs to a minimum, some fleets still co-ordinate their checking routine in-house. This includes diarising hundreds of checks, gaining approvals, submitting individual driver data online and collating results on an ongoing basis. Without the right tools for support, this can make compliance a huge task for many already stacked HR teams. Licence Link mitigates the stress, hassle and risk involved, simplifying and automating the process.

The built-in features in Licence Link provide a simple and effective way to keep check of nominated drivers. Here’s how:

• Nominated drivers are linked to the employee record
• They can approve licence checks remotely by signing an eDeclaration
• Once approved, licences can be checked for 3 years without any further input 
• If an employee leaves, any nominated drivers will be automatically deleted from the system
• Licence Link complies with GDPR 
• Critical alerts and reports include nominated drivers 
• Manage contracted employees and nominated drivers simultaneously

Licence Link makes it easy for fleets of any size, in any sector to manage driver risk, costing less that the price of a small high street coffee per check. It’s a no-brainer that fleets can save significantly by using a system like Licence Link to automate the process. In fact, there’s no excuse for getting caught out.