South Central Ambulance NHS Foundation Trust is using fully electronic and automated licence checking from DriverCheck to manage its driving risk more effectively.

The trust operates a mixed fleet of around 1,200 vehicles

The trust covers four counties – Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Hampshire – providing a range of emergency, urgent care and non-emergency healthcare services, along with logistics and non-emergency patient transport services.

It operates a mixed fleet of around 1,200 vehicles, including front-line ambulances and solo-response cars, patient transport vehicles and company cars and vans.

The 24/7 workload requires a large pool of qualified drivers, and the trust has more than 3,600 drivers, whose licences are checked every three months to ensure they are entitled to drive the class of vehicle they are required to.

“As you might imagine, before employing DriverCheck, this was a huge manual task, often carried out by a large number of team leaders and supervisors across the organisation,” explained Jon Porter, driving standards manager.

“It was very hard to keep track of whether the required checks had actually been carried out on time or to the required standard, and the opportunity for errors was considerable. Now, our system is completely paperless, and drivers complete the registration process via e-declaration rather than physical forms.

“DriverCheck manages the whole process which takes the burden away from us completely and not only cuts down on admin time and staff resources, but is far more cost effective. It has proved to be an absolutely fantastic service,” added Porter.

SCAS staff are also monitored on a performance basis, with the Driving Standards Department responsible for the post-accident management of anyone driving under SCAS insurance.

Porter receives regular reports from DriverCheck as part of the managed service, with email alerts highlighting any drivers approaching disqualification territory. Such alerts also identify any drivers whose photocard licences are in danger of lapsing.

“Failure to do so can result in a £1,000 fine so this has proved to be a very welcome additional benefit of the service,” he continued.

Yvette Giannini, head of operations at DriverCheck, which is part of Ebbon Group’s Compliance Division, said that fully electronic automated licence checking was vital to manage the road risk associated with such a large and diverse, multi-functional fleet.

“Given the nature of the work that SCAS carries out, at all hours of day and night, the associated risk factor is high. To ensure that the trust meets its duty of care responsibilities to not only its drivers, but the larger community, having drivers with validated licences for the class of vehicle they are driving is paramount from a risk management point of view.

“Automatic updating through the DriverCheck client portal dramatically reduces the chances of error, as well as cutting the amount of admin time required, and ensuring duty of care is being met at all times,” she said.