David Wallington The minimum is a periodic physical licence check but this is unlikely to be fully effective as there are many ways to avoid detection of licence defects.

Debbie Floyde Unless legislation is changed to mitigate liability, the fleet manager should really check original licences and then request a check with the DVLA with regular checks being undertaken.

Graham Short Employers should, at the very least, photocopy employees’ driving licences and these should be signed and dated. A policy to check once and then have the driver sign an agreement to notify of any changes may arguably be sufficient.

A driving licence should, at the very least, be checked at interview – this may even prove that a potential employee is unsuitable or too high a risk to fulfil the role.?

What is the best way to monitor a driver’s licence?

Leigh Stiff Requiring the driver to complete a licence mandate and/or increasing the frequency of checks dependent on the individual’s endorsements and penalty points.

This way, you can challenge the things you think you know.

You could request a copy of the driver’s licence counterpart on a quarterly basis, but there is nothing stopping the driver from requesting a duplicate of a clean copy and re-submitting that to you.

David Wallington Monitoring is best done with scheduled automated licence checks using a three-year mandate with DVLA. This allows the employer to check when needed and to make sensible judgements of risk versus cost.

Debbie Floyde I think that the driving licence checks are a revenue stream created as a result of the corporate manslaughter legislation.

While we all want our drivers and other road users to be safe and legal on the road, and we take responsibility for our drivers on company business, I feel that there should be some mechanism for them to legally verify licence details themselves.

Graham Short The best way to monitor a driver’s licence really depends on the organisation. There is no one-size-fits-all solution

Direct checks with the DVLA provide a reliable solution but this only works for UK licence holders. Although generally more costly, there are many professional organisations who will take on this role and do it well.