Agency Drivers: Your Compliance Duties and Their Records

Agency drivers fill gaps in every haulage operation, and they create a compliance blind spot if you let them. The legal reality is blunt: while they drive your vehicles under your O-licence, their compliance is your problem. DVSA’s drivers’ hours guidance says operators have legal responsibilities and liabilities for their own compliance and that of the drivers under their control, and “under their control” covers agency drivers from the moment they take the keys.

The duties that follow every agency driver

Tachograph card downloads. The operator must download data from driver cards at least every 28 calendar days, and immediately before a driver ceases to be employed by the undertaking. DVSA’s guidance adds the bracket that catches people out: this also applies to agency drivers. If an agency driver finishes on Friday and vanishes back to the agency, you must already have their final card download. Lose that data and you have lost the evidence of your own compliance.

Vehicle unit downloads. Data must come off the vehicle unit at least every 90 calendar days, and immediately before control of the vehicle passes to someone else, such as when it is sold or comes off hire. Agency drivers do not change that duty, but a truck shared between permanent and agency drivers makes the data trail more important, not less.

Record production. You must be able to produce records to enforcement officers for 12 months. That includes the records of agency drivers who worked for you months ago, which is why the exit download matters: after they leave, you cannot chase what you failed to collect.

Regular checks. Operators must make regular checks of charts, manual records and digital data to ensure compliance, and take all reasonable steps to prevent breaches. An agency driver’s infringements sit in your data just like a permanent driver’s, and “they were only with us a week” is not a defence to ignoring them.

Before the driver starts

Compliance begins before the first journey:

• Licence check. See the actual driving licence, check the entitlements and any points, and record the check with a date. Repeat at sensible intervals for regulars.
• Driver card. Confirm the driver holds a valid digital tachograph card where one is required. No card, no in-scope driving.
• Hours position. You must schedule work so the rules are met. You cannot schedule an agency driver legally without knowing what driving and duty they have already done that day and week, so require an hours declaration or a printout from their previous work. The duty to schedule legally sits with you, not the agency.
• Briefing. Operators must ensure drivers are properly trained and instructed on drivers’ hours rules and the correct use of tachographs. For agency drivers that means a documented induction: your tachograph type, your defect reporting process, your walkaround check expectations.

While they drive for you

Everything your systems do for permanent drivers applies:

• daily walkaround checks and defect reports on your forms, in your system;
• manual entries for other work, ferry crossings and anomalies, made the same day;
• infringement analysis and debriefs through your normal process, with notes kept;
• copies of their charts, manual records and digital data provided to the driver if they ask, which the rules require.

One more pay-related rule worth knowing: operators must not make payments to drivers related to speed of delivery, distance travelled or amount of goods carried if that would encourage breaches. If your agency invoices effectively pay the driver by the job, check how the incentive structure lands on the driver’s behaviour.

The agency relationship in writing

Good operators put the compliance split in the agency contract: the agency warrants drivers’ licences, cards and right to work; the operator controls scheduling, vehicle systems and records; both cooperate on hours information. When something goes wrong at a roadside stop, DVSA will come to you first, and the contract determines whether you can recover the pain.

The leaving checklist

When an agency driver’s placement ends:

1. Final driver card download, immediately, before they walk out.
2. Their defect reports and walkaround records filed against the vehicle.
3. Their hours declaration and any manual records retained.
4. A note of the placement dates, so the 12-month production duty is manageable later.

Agency drivers are not a compliance holiday. They are your drivers, on your licence, in your data, for exactly as long as they work for you, and their records stay with you for a year after they leave.

Sources

• Drivers’ hours and tachographs: goods vehicles, section 5, responsibilities of vehicle operators (GOV.UK)
• Goods vehicle operator licensing guide (GOV.UK)