Transport services company KBC Logistics has signed up to Licence Bureau’s licence checking service after nearly finding out the hard way the consequences of not ensuring compliance.

After previously checking driving licences and counterparts every six months, KBC Logistics transport and compliance manager Dave Ashford received a knock on the door from two CID officers and two traffic collision investigation officers last June.

One of KBC’s drivers had been involved in an accident in his private car and the Essex-based haulier was subsequently notified that the driver was disqualified.

The driver’s licence had been manually checked in November 2012, but unaware to Ashford he had been subsequently disqualified in March 2013.

Fortunately the driver was being used on shunting duties and not driving a truck on public roads.

Ashford could have faced notable penalties for both himself and the company if the accident had happened at the wheel of a KBC truck.

Ashford said: "Even though on this occasion I had fulfilled my obligation, it was a scary prospect to think that this could have been any one of my operational drivers and it identified a flaw in my systems. I have since signed up to Licence Bureau."