Every operator knows drivers need the right licence. Fewer have a system for actually looking. DVLA runs a free service for checking someone’s driving licence information - the vehicles they can drive, their penalty points, any disqualifications - and it is the only version of the check that cannot be forged with a photocopier. For a fleet, it is the difference between “the driver showed us a licence” and “we verified the licence with DVLA.”
The employer-side service needs two things:
The driver generates the check code themselves from the view-your-licence service - which is what makes the system consent-based rather than surveillance. Two constraints shape how you use it: the code must be used within 21 days, and each code works once. A re-check needs a fresh code.
The result shows what matters: entitlements (which categories the driver may drive), penalty points, and disqualifications. That is the complete answer to “can this person legally drive that vehicle for us today.”
The guidance adds a warning worth heeding: it is a criminal offence to obtain someone else’s personal information without their permission. The check code flow is the permission. Do not improvise around it.
At recruitment - no exceptions. Before the first shift, every driver’s licence is checked online, and the result is filed. The photocard in the wallet is not evidence; the DVLA record is. Recruitment is also where category fraud shows up: the driver whose licence does not actually carry the C+E the job needs, discovered before rather than after the first trunk run.
Periodically through employment. A licence is a snapshot on a moving record. Points accumulate, entitlements get revoked on medical grounds, disqualifications happen in a driver’s private life. Fleets that check only at hiring are flying blind for the years between. A six-monthly check rhythm is the industry norm for a reason: it is frequent enough to catch problems early and light enough to actually happen.
After incidents and endorsements. When a driver reports a conviction or points, the check confirms the record - and what it means for their continued entitlement to drive for you.
The check verifies; the driver’s duty to inform covers the gaps between checks. The driver’s contract and handbook should require immediate declaration of points, convictions, disqualifications and medical issues affecting the licence - and the periodic check then verifies the declarations are complete. The two mechanisms together make concealment a disciplinary fact rather than an awkward discovery.
The fleets that run licence checks well treat them like safety inspections:
It is worth being clear about what the check cannot tell you. It confirms entitlement, points and disqualifications - not competence, not attitude, not fitness on a given day. It is the legal floor of driver due diligence, and the driving assessment, reference and probation that sit above it are separate decisions. But the floor is not optional, and it is the one part a fleet can prove.
Codes are single-use and expire in 21 days, so build the code request into the checking workflow rather than stockpiling them. If the online service misbehaves, DVLA runs a help line for the service - but you will need the driver’s permission, the check code and the last 8 characters of the licence number, the same trio as online.
Licence checking is an hour of admin per driver per year. It is also the answer to the question every public inquiry asks about every driver: how did the operator know this person was legal to drive? Have the better answer.