Driving Licence, Insurance & Incidents
June 2025
Driver Managers – improve your understanding
Our monthly fleet focus delves deeper into some of the key road safety topics to improve your understanding, with free resources for you to share with your drivers.
Each month’s topic sits in a library so, as the library grows each month, you can access a bank of resources at any time to help you improve driver safety in your organisation.
Driving Licence, Insurance and Incident Reporting
Driving is for the most people the most dangerous activity they do.
We know in the majority of cases, the cause of a collision is due to driving behaviours.
Are your drivers qualified to drive the vehicle you’ve asked them to? Do they have any convictions or penalty points on their licence that could compromise their right to drive?
It’s vital that, as a manager or owner in your organisation, you’re confident that your drivers are properly qualified. This should be done by checking their licences through the DVLA, with the drivers permission, to ensure there is no effect on your company policies and insurance premiums.
All vehicles must be insured by law, with the appropriate cover for the type of vehicle, type of work and the use of that vehicle. Lower insurance premiums are achievable through good safety records, regular vehicle checks and maintenance. You should instigate and monitor incident reporting procedures to ensure best practice from your drivers.
Legal Update: Driving Licence, Insurance and Incident Reporting
A driving licence is not a guarantee of any individual driver’s ability behind the wheel. A driving test is a snapshot of that person’s ability at the time of that test.
As an employer of drivers using your fleet, or where you instruct your staff to use their vehicles in any work capacity (grey fleet), then it is right to establish that the driver possesses a driving licence (you will be surprised at how many people purport to when they do not, or where they do not hold the correct classification of driving licence).
Checking with an employee that they possess a driving licence should be part of your standard onboarding process.
Read this month’s legal update on employer’s responsibilities here.
What’s in the Resource Download
Download a zip file with additional resources to share with your drivers including:
- An article to share with your drivers on Driving Licence, Insurance and Incident Reporting
- Short safety messages to send to your drivers on their devices
- Posters for your staff noticeboards
- Information sheets from our Van Driver Toolkit
