Abolition of the paper counterpart had been expected at the turn of the year, but the DVLA has now delayed the move
Abolition of the paper counterpart had been expected at the turn of the year, but the DVLA has now delayed the move until June 8, 2015.
Many employers continue to undertake checks internally themselves by looking at the document, but the Government’s decision to axe the paper counterpart means that will no longer be possible.
Instead, the DVLA is planning to introduce a free of charge online service for employers to check the validity of employees driving licences. It has said that the service is currently in development and will be available 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.
With the launch still to be announced, demand from employers for administratively simple but robust validation of employees’ driving licences will increase in 2015 with the abolition of the paper counterpart to the photocard driving licence.
That’s the view of leading fleet management software provider Jaama, whose electronic driver entitlement checking service (EDECS) is already used by organisations to collectively check the driving licences of thousands of at-work drivers.
Jaama managing director Martin Evans believes the administrative burden that will cause employers will result in the company winning more driver licence checking business: “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.”
EDECS is fully integrated within Jaama’s multi award-winning online Key2 fleet management software giving customers a complete picture of their driver risk and fleet management operation. Alternatively, EDECS is available as a standalone system for customers who want a driver risk profile tool.
Jaama’s comprehensive licence checking service removes the ‘DIY’ administrative burden for employers and also ensures they have all information on drivers and their vehicles held in one central database, building a combined intelligent profile and highlighting exceptions.
