Proposed DVSA powers to improve road safety, believes LICENCECHECK managing director Richard Brown

Proposed powers to allow the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) to prevent unlicensed or improperly licensed drivers from driving a vehicle rather than having to call upon the police, would help improve road safety, according to Richard Brown, managing director of LICENCECHECK.

Currently, when DVSA needs to prohibit a vehicle because the driver doesn't have the appropriate driver licence, the police must be contacted to take action.

Proposed in a Department for Transport consultation on ‘Motoring services strategy’, DVSA is seeking approval for its staff to have the power to demand a licence is produced and seize a vehicle.

Richard commented: “Cutting out a layer of policing for this common issue will mean a swifter resolution, ensuring drivers will not be on the road that do not have the correct licence entitlement.

“It’s clear that police resourcing is increasingly under pressure, and allowing the DVSA to take on responsibility themselves for this important licensing issue will make UK roads a safer place.”

Such a move would complement an initiative currently being implemented by the DVSA which allows it to focus resources on non-compliant operators through a recognition enforcement scheme, which helps the industry police itself. In order to highlight non-compliant serial offenders, larger operators will be encouraged to use Application Development Interfaces (APIs) to link their fleet management systems to various agencies to automatically exchange operational data demonstrating good practice.

“While these proposed changes are primarily driven by cost savings,” said Richard, “they are certainly one way of addressing the unlicensed vocational driver issue. For larger goods vehicles and passenger vehicles, another positive action would be to make Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) and tacho card information available to operators as part of the driving licence check.”

In a recent survey by LICENCECHECK, there was universal support for detailed CPC data to be made available to operators as part of the driving licence checking process. “Ensuring that unlicensed drivers never leave a depot in the first place by making their licence entitlement and other qualification information available from a single source would seem to tick a number of consultation boxes,” added Richard.

Press contacts

Rachel Burgess – rburgess@torqueagencygroup.com or 020 7952 1076
Matt Sanger – msanger@torqueagencygroup.com or 020 7952 1079

About LICENCECHECK

LICENCECHECK was founded in 2008 and has established itself as a leader and innovator in the licence verification industry. LICENCECHECK founder and managing director Richard Brown, has spent over 30 years working in various sectors of the motor trade before developing the LICENCECHECK brand.  LICENCECHECK Ltd is a fully registered member of DVLA Electronic Driver Entitlement Checking Service (EDECS) and a founder member of The Association for Driving Licence Verification (ADLV). LICENCECHECK’s customer service satisfaction is rated at 4.9 out of 5 by its customers.

In line with the company’s growth strategy, LICENCECHECK has seen a sharp increase in revenue in 2015 rising 77% year-to-date, while it has recently appointed a new commercial director, Terence Hiles, to help manage growth in current services and new product lines.