Kevin Curtis, managing director of Driving Monitor, explained: “Our new eConsent system is called ePass (Electronic Permit and Safety System) and connects the driver consent with the new live realtime checking service we have recently launched. This means for the first time a manager can verify the status of their employees’ licences within seconds. Traditionally we’ve had to rely on the DVLA ‘batch’ processing model where we send a volume of licence checking data via a secure channel to the DVLA – and then wait for the ‘batch’ of results to be returned. 

“The new platform has opened up a whole range of new services we can offer with instant real-time checks. We can also get instant results when a driver completes our Driving Monitor risk assessment profiler, meaning the DVLA data is right up-to-date allowing the risk assessment to be 100% accurate instantly. We have also recently tested the new real-time service against the current overnight batch service that we use via a secure DVLA link. Our results found that 100% of records that were previously suppressed via the overnight EDECs service were checked successfully via the new realtime service. This is a marked improvement on reducing the number of records that previously were held up by the DVLA if they were working on a licence. We can now use the new real-time service to reduce the number of blocked records.” 

Curtis also explained the differences between the company’s service and the forthcoming DLVA solution: “The new DVLA ‘Share My Licence’ service that will be launched in the summer will only offer a single-view approach and relies on the driver registering for the service using the government gateway ID verification platform. Once a driver has been through this process (10 minutes) they would then activate a one-time use code for their employer to use. They would then need to print a form to give to their employer, which then starts the process of the employer needing to access the web service. The employer would then need to access the DVLA portal with the one-time use code to verify the driving licence (a further five minutes).

“What will become apparent very quickly is that employers will not want their drivers taking up valuable time going through an online approval process to register, then to generate a one-time use code that needs to be handed to the employer. Fleet managers also need to understand that the new DVLA service is not designed to give any ‘management’ reporting or any view across more that one employee.

“Driving Monitor offer a completely managed service, from collection of consent to full web dashboard and automated reports on licence status, points, categories and entitlements.

“We find that when a company has more than a handful of drivers the need for an auditable report to cover their Duty of Care comes into play. Fleet managers are far more savvy these days and understand the importance of combining their licence checks with other safety checks such as risk assessments and telematics data. They are demanding integrated services to take the burden away from their admin teams and this is where companies such as Driving Monitor add real value.”

Driving Monitor are giving live demonstrations at the NEC in Birmingham 24, 25, & 26 March 2015 at the Health & Safety show. Further demonstrations will be held at the Excel conference centre in London on 16, 17 & 18 June 2015.