Driver Receives 16 Years Of Bans

Thursday, 27. May 2010

On the subject of grey fleets, ALD Automotive who provide fleets with licence checking services, have highlighted the need to constantly check employee licences if they are expected to drive their own cars on company business. Their advice followed the discovery of a driver who had received 16 years of bans in a space of just 16 weeks. ALD first checked his licence in 2009 and noted that he had received a 12 month ban in 2002. Through constant checking they found that the employee had been banned from driving twice for drink driving, receiving a 4 year ban in each case, followed by two further 4 year bans for driving whilst disqualified along with several other related offences such as supplying false details and driving without insurance. However, the driver will only be banned from driving for a total of 4 years as the bans will run concurrently. Had the employer either not checked the driver’s licence, as he would no doubt have been allowed to continue to drive on company business, or his licence was only checked annually, the directors would have potentially left themselves open to conviction, had the driver had an accident and either killed himself or a third party, not to mention the fact that had he had an accident that damaged someone else’s vehicle, whilst driving on company business, the insurance would have been void and the employer would have had to fork out for the damage. Whilst the employer may not have picked up this extreme case so easily the DVLA recommends that all drivers’ licences are checked annually as a minimum. If the driver already has between 4 and 7 points on his licence this should be reduced to every 6 months and if he has 8 or more points every 3 months should be the checking period. I would also add that you need to include in the employee’s contract of employment that if they drive on company business that they should report immediately any points they receive on their licence for any misdemeanour. By Graham Hill