Dealers can automatically check employee driving licences and manage resulting driver risk online with a new product by dealer management systems company Pinewood.

Licence Link was originally developed by Pinewood’s sister company CFC Solutions for the fleet sector where it was launched at the start of 2009.

Pinewood is now making it available because the risk management issues facing fleets also apply to dealers, with a legal onus on employees to regularly check licence validity.

Once basic driving licence information is entered onto the system, dealer managers can choose how often automatic checks are made with the DVLA database – for example, annually for low mileage, low risk drivers or more frequently for high mileage, high risk employees.

Risk summary reports will automatically group drivers into different levels of risk group – for example, those with 1-3, 4-7, 8-12 and 12 plus points, and Licence Link can be set up so that those with higher numbers of points are checked more often.

Automatic alerts are sent to the dealer manager if the DVLA checks show changes to endorsements, the categories of vehicle that an employee is allowed to drive or if there are events such as disqualification or a photo card expiring.

Pinewood managing director Neville Briggs said: “Recent changes in corporate risk management, especially the arrival of the Corporate Manslaughter Act, have made the checking of licences an essential task for dealer managers but it remains one that can be onerous and difficult to manage, especially using a paper based system or spreadsheet.

Further features in Licence Link include the ability to upload and store document scans against each driver record, such as an image of each driver’s licence and driver declarations. These files are held online and encrypted securely.

Access is via a credit payment scheme. To run checks, a dealer buys credits in advance and as each licence check is made, the system displays the credits remaining, providing a constant balance reminder for the dealer manager.