The news comes as the firm announces that over five (5.42) in every 1,000 company car, van and truck drivers do not hold a valid licence to legally drive their company vehicle.

Without a licence checking service in place, the companies empowering those five to six employees to drive a company vehicle would be breaking the law and compromising their Duty of Care obligations.

At the initial licence check stage Licence Bureau experienced the over 5 in 1,000 drive failure rate, with provisional licence holders in the top two positions. Provisional drivers cannot legally drive unaccompanied or on motorways so these drivers slipping through the net could cause major issues for fleets.

Drivers whose licences are revoked, expired licence holders and disqualified drivers made up the remainder of the licence failure list.

The firm says its statistics reinforce the need for rechecking a driver’s licence regularly using systems such as its own. At this stage, the potential rate of failure according to Licence Bureau’s statistics fall to just over two per thousand (2.05) and the reasons are very different from initial checks. Drivers with expired licences are top of the list followed by disqualified drivers.

Without a licence recheck both these issues would not have been picked up by the employer, potentially causing huge Duty of Care issues as those categories of driver aren’t insured in the event of an accident.

‘The aim is to highlight the growing problem to companies of failing to audit employees’ current driving and vehicle documents,’ explained Malcolm Maycock, managing director of Licence Bureau.

‘Our top five lists should help employees understand the issues and potential consequences for non=compliance.

‘Companies are often surprised at what notifications our systems generate at the recheck stage and how the status of both driver and licence can change in just a few months,’ he added.

Top 5 driving licence check failures: