The first of a new generation of licence-checking software, RealTime from LicenceCheck, aims to deliver time and administrative savings to its customers.

Making use of new technology introduced by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), the service is being pitched at businesses that demand immediate driving licence check results, such as vehicle rental companies, driver agencies and employers.

It will deliver licence check results at the point of request as opposed to the currently available overnight batch service, which delivers results the next working day.

Richard Brown, managing director of LicenceCheck, told Fleet News: “For certain types of organisation, this will really enhance their capability of doing a licence check or a risk assessment at that given point.”

The RealTime product is being launched as fleets prepare for the scrapping of the paper counterpart on June 8.

Fleets, which rely on checking the paper counterpart to fulfil their duty of care obligations, will instead have access to the DVLA’s online licence-checking service called Share Driving Licence.

However, while Brown says the DVLA service will be fine for some employers, he believes others would do well to outsource the service to a third party.

“People simply don’t understand how licencing works,” he said. “There are lots of areas where a licence can be disqualified or revoked.”

LicenceCheck saw its turnover increase by 40% last year and now has more than 650 customers, including blue chip corporates, SMEs, public sector and other driver-related services.

“Our job is to remove the problem and provide the relevant information in a simple way,” continued Brown.

“The system takes the guesswork out of the equation and picks-up on those areas that organisations don’t necessarily think about the risk because they don’t understand it.”

The RealTime service, running alongside its existing Driver Licence Verification Service (DLVS), will become part of LicenceCheck’s new Driver and Vehicle Information Solutions (DAVIS) product.

It will offer more service modules to customers, including grey fleet management, telematics, driver and vehicle management services, driver assessments, risk assessments and training.

LicenceCheck is also re-launching its Grey Fleet Management Service (GFMS) for employees who use privately vehicles while at work for business purposes.

GFMS aims to address duty of care obligations by validating vehicle information such as MOT, tax, insurance and emissions, together with individual driver details that include fitness to drive.

See this week’s Fleet News for the very latest from the DVLA on the scrapping of the paper counterpart and its online alternative for fleets.

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