Dudley Ashford, drivers’ service manager at DVLA, explains more about the online system that will replace the counterpart.

Driving licence checking is a daily, paper-based necessity for many in the fleet industry – but not for much longer. From June 8, 2015 we will stop issuing or updating the paper counterpart to the photocard driving licence. We’ve been busy making the necessary technical changes to our systems as well as preparing stakeholders and business customers for our next major shift to digital.

In March, Fleet News reported on how we were working on the new free 24/7 Share Driving Licence service as the alternative to the paper counterpart, and I am pleased to say that, in readiness for June 8, the beta version is now available for drivers and businesses to use. We knew it was vital to work with the fleet industry and other major stakeholders very early on to help us develop online services to suit business needs. And the ongoing feedback we’ve received following user testing has been instrumental in developing the service. Of course, we’re still very keen for feedback but all of the early signs are really encouraging.

Share Driving Licence may be the best fit for businesses that currently check a customer or colleague’s paper counterpart. It allows the driver to control access to their record in much the same way as they control who to share their counterpart with. It also offers the benefit for those needing to check a driver’s record of seeing information direct from DVLA records so they know it is completely up-to-date.

We’re also continuing to develop our Access to Driver Data (ADD) service. This is for businesses and organisations that would prefer to draw real-time driving licence information directly into their own systems (providing users get drivers’ consent before making any checks). The ADD service is technically ready for live, and we’re busy working through the detail of the contract and audit requirements users will need to sign up to.

For updates go to gov.uk/dvla/nomorecounterpart. Email questions to us at abolitionofcounterpart@dvla.gsi.gov.uk. Keep up to date with the DVLA by subscribing to our email alerts at public.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKDVLA/subscriber/new.

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