According to research conducted on behalf of RAC Insurance the answer is probably no as almost 9 out of 10 motorists would not tell their employer if they received points on their driving licence.
As with their own car insurance this could potentially invalidate the employers' insurance. The research found that out of the drivers surveyed:
- 13% would plan on informing their employer if they received points
- 18% would not tell their insurer if their licence was endorsed
- 25% of those that already had penalty points did not inform any organization when they received them
It could be that some drivers are simply forgetting to inform their employer and insurance company and in some cases it will be intentional. Either way, the net results is that there are potentially hundreds of thousands of drivers who may be effectively uninsured by default. This could have very serious consequences for any road transport operator should they be involved in an accident.
Transport operators need to understand the risk profile of their drivers so that they can target training or corrective actions on drivers that need it. Employers can not rely on the employee to tell them about penalty points. The only sure way is to check the licence details with the DVLA using a service such as
SmartLicence.
With SmartLicence checks are scheduled according to the risk profile of a driver - a driver with 6 or 9 points will get checked more frequently than a driver with a clean licence. Employers also get SmartAlerts should there be any changes to the licence following a check with DVLA using SmartLicence. This gets round the problem of drivers not informing their employer when they receive new penalty points.
For more information on
SmartLicence email info@descartes.com
Source:
Fleet News
