Licence Check MD Keith Allen on the latest developments in risk management and what the company’s expanded offering will deliver to fleets and drivers.

Keith Allen, managing director of Licence Check

Licence Check has always stuck to what it does best

The company was founded to help businesses carry out licence checks and was one of the first to check licences through a digital platform. In recent years, the business has expanded its offering by developing DAVIS (Driver and Vehicle Information Solutions), a platform that would manage vehicle risk and driver risk. DAVIS is a self-managed service and currently does more than a million checks a year within the fleet market. We’re now the number one provider of licence checks and, in total, we have around 4,000 customers covering over half a million drivers.

We’ve got big plans for 2023 and beyond

It’s a really interesting time for us because we are in the process of introducing additional services to the market. We’ve very recently launched DAVIS Fleet, which will move the DAVIS platform from what was known as a licence checking platform to a fleet management offering for operators. Through our wide range of corporate customers – from DPD to Travis Perkins – we saw an opportunity. There has always been a vehicle compliance element to the platform, which involved MOT and tax checks, as well as making sure fleet managers had all the data for their vehicle. However, now we are expanding that to become a simple, easy-t0-use platform for operators to manage their drivers and vehicles in one place.

DAVIS Fleet is designed to make things easier for fleets

My background is in vehicle leasing and, in recent years, I’ve seen a big shift in corporates going through brokers to acquire cars – it’s a trend that we expect to further increase in the future – with most corporates using multi-supply deals with a range of leasing companies. I see DAVIS Fleet as an ideal solution for companies managing multi-supply lease vehicles in one place with a simple, lean and efficient outlook. We’re thinking in terms of renewal management, disposal charges, back-end management with compliance remaining a key focus – all in a single platform.

The emphasis is efficiency, safety and sustainability and so the service will offer different management tools in that regard. For example, DAVIS Fleet will give fleet operators their CO2 analysis and trends, fuel and mileage management and compliance.

We’re also extending our E-Learning service in Q2 2023, which will involve the launch of a driver app focused on driving behaviour, with event triggered educational content which will be personal to the driver – all with the aim of improving driver engagement and road safety.

DAVIS Fleet will have very specific boundaries in its product offering

We’re not going to cover HGVs – this is purely an offering for car and van fleets. In addition, we’re not going to be an accident management provider or offer a fuel card service. What we are is a facilitator – we’re taking the data in and giving users the visibility and the transparency they need visualised within intuitive summary dashboards which give an exceptionally clear view of risk, financials and sustainability.

There’s an app on the way

Our new driver app which is planned for a spring launch will also include walkaround checks, ‘fit to drive’ declarations and eventually manage the driver permission aspect of the driving licence checking process. Naturally, data from the app will feed back into DAVIS, giving an improved view of driver and fleet risk, and will make life easier for fleet managers as well as drivers, which is a key aim of DAVIS Fleet.

The feedback we’re hearing from our customers is what they want an app that is a capable fuel management system; analyses CO2 output and the ability – possibly via a QR code – to see which driver is in which vehicle.

We think we’ve got a proposition that no-one else offers

We’re coming into the market with a fresh pair of eyes, as opposed to systems that sit on legacy platforms. That means more emphasis on sustainability, electrification, CO2 and all of the analysis that goes with those elements. But, also, we’re coming from a driver angle initially. The driver compliance is all taken care of and the vehicle and driver information is on the same single platform. Plus, it’s easy to use and has been written for mid-sized fleet operators who use multiple suppliers but requires the visibility of them all. Fleet managers don’t want to have to log in to multiple lease company portals but they do need to manage renewals, fuel and all other elements in the most efficient way.

Whatever your vehicle is powered by or, we’ve got you covered

Regardless of EV or ICE – or passenger car or LCV – the DAVIS Fleet platform caters to all types of car and van fleets. Put the details in and it will then handle all the in-life management tasks. The platform has the flexibility of managing not only vehicles that are owned or leased but is also capable of managing employee-owned vehicles through its grey fleet service. It’s not a procurement management system – it is helping to better manage fleets as well as drivers.