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Track foreign drivers' convictions with DVLA form, urges ING
Date: 27 October 2008 | Author: Hugh Hunston
The risk of fleets employing a growing number of overseas drivers with unknown previous motoring convictions could be limited by investing in a cost-effective £30-a-head DVLA registration form.
That is the verdict of leading leasing operator ING Lease, whose head of risk management, Diarmuid Fahy, admitted the lack of monitoring foreign drivers' records was a "big concern".
A poll conducted on behalf of ING revealed that fewer than half of businesses operate clear policies on tracking foreign fleet drivers and 90% were unaware of the D9 form, which facilitates transferring foreign drivers' licence records on to a central database.
Fahy said: "Present British legislation does not provide for the processing of fixed penalties for holders of licences outside the UK and so companies could be at risk of employing drivers with previous motoring offences.
"It is a big concern that as the trend for employing foreign drivers increases, there is not more awareness about the D9 form and its huge benefit. It costs £30 per driver to apply for the form, an insignificant amount when it supplies an audit trail under Duty of Care legislation and the Corporate Manslaughter Act. "
According to the ING commissioned survey foreign drivers employed by UK companies rose by 8% last year.
