After an initial half-baked attempt to abolish the paper counterpart of the UK driving licence in January, the government has confirmed that the paper counterpart issued with UK photocard driving licences will no longer be valid from 8 June 2015.

This has a number of important implications for van hire companies, and addressing this change will require forward planning if companies are to avoid costly and risky workarounds.

LICENCECHECK RealTime is the first product to provide real-time UK driver licence checks for companies ahead of the abolition of the paper counterpart.

The British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA) has issued some guidelines explaining the issues — and how they can be addressed.

Perhaps by coincidence (perhaps not), the first real-time driver licence checking system, LICENCECHECK RealTime, has also just been launched: such systems are likely to be the only viable way for firms to check licences once the paper counterpart has gone.

Here’s what the BVRLA has to say on the subject (my comments in italics):

• The driver record held centrally by the DVLA will be the only legal source of the driver’s licensing history, penalty points, endorsement and disqualification details.
• From 8 June 2015, fleets will have three options for checking a driver’s details:
  • They can call the DVLA’s premium rate telephone service. This costs 51p per minute and the driver must be present.
    However, I suspect this will be too slow and expensive for all but the smallest companies. Plus the BVRLA says it will not be sufficient for audit/compliance purposes as it will not provide an authenticated, timed record of the check. 
  • They can ask drivers to provide a printed copy of their licence details using the DVLA’s new Share My Driving Licence (SMDL) service, which is accessible via the www.gov.uk digital government services portal. The SMDL service is free and the details can be separately verified online by using a one-time-only DVLA access code supplied by the driver.
    The DVLA warns that handling and storing driver information brings reponsibilities under data protection legislation. In my view, it’s also clear that this approach will be cumbersome and unreliable — especially as many drivers will fail to turn up with a suitable printout from the SMDL service. To access the information, drivers need their driving licence number and National Insurance number, plus access to a computer and printer — so last minute checks could be difficult.
  • They can use an accredited driving licence verification service provider.
    Inevitably this will be the only satisfactory option for most van hire companies. Data protection, audit and compliance responsibilities will all be taken care of by DVLA-accredited licence check service providers.

The way forward is pretty clear — a subscription service offering reliable, real-time access to the DVLA’s driving licence database, with no data protection issues, and a reliable audit trail.

Introducing LICENCECHECK RealTime

As if by magic, the BVRLA’s press release hit the newswires at exactly the same time the makers of LICENCECHECK announced the launch of their new real-time licence checking software, named RealTime.

According to the firm, this is the first product of its kind that’s commercially available in the UK. It uses the DVLA’s technology to provide immediate results — previous versions of the firm’s system delivered results overnight, rather than instantly.

An example of a real-time driving licence check result from LICENCECHECK RealTime (click to enlarge)

LICENCECHECK managing director Richard Brown said:

“Not only does our RealTime software make life easier for companies with fleets, but it reduces potential corporate liability considerably, and with the drive towards corporate responsibility and an awareness of their organisation’s duty of care  moving upwards in our clients’ agendas, it’s an area which can’t be overlooked.”

It takes little imagination to see the legal and compensation issues that could result from hiring a vehicle to someone without a valid driving licence — or with prohibited endorsements which they failed to declare, invalidating the hired vehicle’s insurance.

In my view, there’s no doubt that the scale of these risks means that van hire companies will flock to sign up to systems such as LICENCECHECK — although I would stress that there will be competitors in the market and the DVLA is providing an open platform to allow companies to develop their own solutions.

The only question is how many of these other solutions will be ready by June?