Selenity (formerly Software Europe), provider of finance and HR cloud technology, has launched DVLA Connect, an automatic driver and vehicle data ‘look-up’ service provided on its Expenses cloud technology.

DVLA Connect aims to provide an efficient and cost-effective way to authenticate driving licence validity, and populate entitlement and endorsement information for company drivers.

Vehicle look-ups provide accurate data on employees’ vehicle MOT and tax status.

Deborah Saunby, sales and marketing director at Selenity, said: "Duty of care can be costly for businesses wanting to check their employees’ information direct from the DVLA, costing a company on average £10 per driver.

“Thanks to our partnership with Licence Check, we’ve been able to remove that cost for our Expenses customers who will save money using our own DVLA Connect service, as well as reduce the administrative burden of manually checking all employees’ driver and vehicle documentation.”

Employers are required by law to ensure they carry out necessary checks to ensure all of its drivers, whether using company or private vehicles, are safe and legally entitled to drive for work purposes.

Failure to check driving licences, current MOT certificates and insurance documents could result in hefty fines or even jail time for line managers and company directors alike, regardless of whether they are directly responsible for the offence.

DVLA Connect is an additional service available within the Duty of Care feature of Selenity’s Expenses technology, which allows organisations to carry out automatic checking of driver and vehicle documentation, including MOT and road tax information.

The Driver Check feature within DVLA Connect is carried out automatically, with employees’ consent, and instantly populates data.

DVLA Connect can be scheduled to perform driver look-ups every one, three, six or 12 months to suit an organisation’s individual needs or depending on a driver’s risk profile.

All employees provide consent and verify their licence details within Expenses and, once provided, all details are automatically populated.

DVLA Connect provides real time alerts and notifications for drivers that are discovered to have been disqualified or show a revoked or expired driving licence.