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andrewjb1  
#1 Posted : 05 March 2015 21:20:30(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
andrewjb1

Couple of questions... We are a large organisation with a large number of employees that either use their own vehicles occasionally for business use or use the pool car or the company mini buses.

It has proved in the past to be an enormous task being able to get employees to bring in various documents, the company now only request to see driving licences and the counterpart licence.

There is a declaration that the employee signs to state that they maintain their private vehicles in a roadworthy condition and hold relevant insurance to cover them for business purposes, this is stated on the mileage expense claim. We also have a driver pack in the company owned vehicles with information with regards to pre journey checks.

Are we exposed by only asking employees to sign a declaration and only seeing the licence?

I would much rather request to see the licences, mot or confirmation of roadworthiness and insurance confirmation but wandered if anyone else has a practice way of administrating this when large numbers of employees are involved?

chas  
#2 Posted : 06 March 2015 08:56:13(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
chas

I am of the view that relying on a self declaration is not enough, especially if your staff are driving a lot on behalf of the company. My understanding is that there are a great many people on the road who are one or two points from being disqualified or driving whilst being disqualified by using a copy of a clean license and by driving without adequate business cover etc. If you/your organisation does not check license entitlement, the soon to be abolished paper counterpart, MOT, insurance etc then you are likely to be held to account alongside the driver in the event of a serious accident, (I believe the relevant vehicle construction and use regs cover this issue). If you have large numbers of drivers there are organisations that will do the checks and manage the issue for you, at a cost of course.
JohnW  
#3 Posted : 06 March 2015 11:25:09(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
JohnW

My largest client pays a company to do the licence, insurance and MOT checks. Apparently all this can be done via dvla and other web resources without getting any documents from employees.
Lawlee45239  
#4 Posted : 06 March 2015 11:47:23(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Lawlee45239

andrewjb1 wrote:
Couple of questions... We are a large organisation with a large number of employees that either use their own vehicles occasionally for business use or use the pool car or the company mini buses.

It has proved in the past to be an enormous task being able to get employees to bring in various documents, the company now only request to see driving licences and the counterpart licence.

There is a declaration that the employee signs to state that they maintain their private vehicles in a roadworthy condition and hold relevant insurance to cover them for business purposes, this is stated on the mileage expense claim. We also have a driver pack in the company owned vehicles with information with regards to pre journey checks.

Are we exposed by only asking employees to sign a declaration and only seeing the licence?

I would much rather request to see the licences, mot or confirmation of roadworthiness and insurance confirmation but wandered if anyone else has a practice way of administrating this when large numbers of employees are involved?




http://www.gedling.gov.u...w%20D796%205th%20Aug.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/employing-people-to-drive

please have a look at these links (if you can)

We have just started the new DVLA checks, as the counterpart is no longer requeired
Safety Smurf  
#5 Posted : 06 March 2015 12:02:23(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Safety Smurf

Chas wrote:
soon to be abolished paper counterpart


That's news to me? there's nothing on the DVLA website stating that?

I've lived at the same address for nearly 20 years so i've still only got a paper licence.
Lawlee45239  
#6 Posted : 06 March 2015 12:03:51(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Lawlee45239

Safety Smurf wrote:
Chas wrote:
soon to be abolished paper counterpart


That's news to me? there's nothing on the DVLA website stating that?

I've lived at the same address for nearly 20 years so i've still only got a paper licence.




https://www.gov.uk/gover.../driving-licence-changes

from 8th June this year
Safety Smurf  
#7 Posted : 06 March 2015 12:06:51(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Safety Smurf

Lawlee45239 wrote:
Safety Smurf wrote:
Chas wrote:
soon to be abolished paper counterpart


That's news to me? there's nothing on the DVLA website stating that?

I've lived at the same address for nearly 20 years so i've still only got a paper licence.




https://www.gov.uk/gover.../driving-licence-changes

from 8th June this year


"Paper driving licences issued before the photocard was introduced in 1998 will remain valid and should not be destroyed."

Phew!!! was starting to panic then!
chris42  
#8 Posted : 06 March 2015 12:08:01(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
chris42

quote=Safety Smurf]
Chas wrote:
soon to be abolished paper counterpart


That's news to me? there's nothing on the DVLA website stating that?

I've lived at the same address for nearly 20 years so I've still only got a paper licence.


So have I. The paper licence you have is the old paper only type which is still good, unless it needs to be changed for some reason. If it needs to be changed you go to card type.

The paper part they are on about is the paper part of the card type will be going, not what we have.

Chris
achrn  
#9 Posted : 06 March 2015 12:08:47(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
achrn

Safety Smurf wrote:
Chas wrote:
soon to be abolished paper counterpart


That's news to me? there's nothing on the DVLA website stating that?

I've lived at the same address for nearly 20 years so i've still only got a paper licence.



The paper counterpart is being abolished. The paper licenses are not. If you have a paper licence and all the details are still current (for now) you can continue to use it forever. Mine's only 17 years old (we last moved house in 1998), but there's no need to get it replaced.

The change affects people who have a plastic card and a separate paper bit. The separate paper bit is being scrapped.
andrewjb1  
#10 Posted : 07 March 2015 11:08:24(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
andrewjb1

I'm not so worried about the licence aspect, I'm aware the paper version is being fazed out, and just to add there is an expiry date on licences.

I'm more concerned about whether we need mot certificates and insurance documents as this is a massive task, finances don't really stretch to a company to do these for us.
JohnW  
#11 Posted : 07 March 2015 11:13:18(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
JohnW

Andrew,

As I said above, my largest client pays a company to do the licence, insurance and MOT checks. Apparently all this can be done via DVLA and other web resources without getting any documents from employees.

If you are a small organisation you can probably do all this yourself, I expect a quick google will explain how it is done.

John
johnmurray  
#12 Posted : 07 March 2015 18:54:17(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
johnmurray

https://www.vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk

Gives you tax and mot.
Askmid.com, via the employee self-check, gives you insurance.
The paper licence is not being removed, as said, but any changes will soon require the licensee to apply for a photo licence.
bob youel  
#13 Posted : 09 March 2015 07:41:33(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
bob youel

all large problems are really a series of small ones so get each front line manager to check their small number of immediate staff and then pass the info along to a central admin place - & if front line managers are not getting their staff's details they are not doing their job so act accordingly with front line managers noting that this management area is not a H&S bod's job
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