Advantages of an Electronic Driving Licence Control
27. Jun 2021 | By Tim Ruhoff
If companies provide their employees with a company car or pool vehicles, this is a nice gesture. However, this also entails risks for the employer as the vehicle owner. Section 21 of the German Road Traffic Act (StVG) stipulates that the vehicle owner is liable if he allows or orders a person to drive his vehicle who does not have a valid driving licence. The consequences under criminal law range from a fine to imprisonment. In order to avoid the penalty, the vehicle owner must regularly check the driving licences of his drivers. How the Driving Licence Check should be implemented in a company, what technical support is available for this purpose and what needs to be taken into account when implementing it are discussed below.
Driver's license control in the company
Driver's License Check for employees means that the company checks whether the employees who drive a company vehicle have the required driver's license. There are no regulations in the law about how the Driver's License Check must be carried out in the company.
The simplest, but also most time-consuming solution is the Manual Driver's License Check. In this case, each employee must show their driver's license to the person responsible for the fleet. This person then checks off the employees who have passed the Driver's License Check on a list or hands out the vehicle key for a pool vehicle. This method is problematic if the employees are not even on site, but work in the field, for example. Furthermore, there is the risk that the check is not documented completely or drivers are overlooked. In the meantime, however, there are numerous offers to carry out the Driver's License Check electronically.
There are different variants offered for the Electronic Driver's License Check.
One option is to photograph the driver's license and enter it into software. The fleet manager matches the data with the employee he or she knows or asks the employee to provide a passport photo for matching. The driver's license test is considered passed when the fleet manager verifies the driver's license.
Another option is to verify the driver's license with a combination of hardware and software. For this purpose, an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chip is applied to the driver's license. This can be read at suitable reading stations. Here, the verification of the driver's license takes place automatically, so that the fleet manager does not have to perform a separate confirmation.
It is even easier to attach a QR code to the driving licence. The QR code can be scanned from anywhere and at any time using a smartphone and the appropriate app. Here, too, the system automatically verifies the driving licence.
Advantages of an Electronic Driving Licence Control
The advantages of Electronic Driving Licence Checks outweigh those of manual checks. Whereas manual checks require the driver and the checker to be in the same place, Electronic Driving Licence Checks can be carried out from anywhere. Another advantage is that the check can be carried out at any time. Furthermore, the driver receives a notification by e-mail or text message when the driving licence needs to be presented again. At the same time, the fleet manager is informed if the driver has not complied with this request. In this way, it can be ensured that the six-monthly check intervals are adhered to without having to keep track of this in a separate diary. This eliminates the time-consuming coordination of appointments. Further advantages of Electronic Driving Licence Checks are that they can also be carried out independently of the fleet manager via a central system to which several people in the company can access for the driver.
The software can be operated easily and intuitively, ensuring that drivers also accept the system and recognise the benefits. Depending on the provider, the software packages can even be adapted to the company's individual requirements and linked to other systems, such as driver instruction. Data exchange is easily possible via an interface.
A further advantage is the audit-proof and automatic documentation of the data, which means that complete documentation can be proven in the event of liability.
Disadvantages of an Electronic Driving Licence Control
Despite all the benefits that an Electronic Driver's Licence Check brings, its use is not always absolutely legally compliant, depending on the provider. Particularly in the area of data protection and the introduction of the new General Data Protection Regulation (DSGVO), some providers are no longer up to date. This is mainly because the issue of data protection is not taken seriously and changes are not taken into account in the software. Furthermore, the use of software means additional costs for the company. Here, the company must weigh up whether the time savings and documentation benefits outweigh the cost disadvantage. This is mainly dependent on the size of the fleet
Implementation of an Electronic Driving Licence Control
In order to keep the investment costs for a software solution within reasonable limits, the company should check in advance which offers best fit the requirements of the fleet. If the company prefers a solution via smartphone, it must also be ensured, for example, that the employees have a smartphone available. If not, then a terminal as a control station may be advantageous, but this again has the disadvantage that the drivers must be on site. The time factor must also be taken into account during implementation. How quickly must the system be available? Has the company taken into account a transitional period until all driver's licenses are recorded for the first time and entered into the system? Because despite all the automation of the processes, it must be noted that the first presentation of the driver's license must take place in any case before the fleet manager, so that he can, for example, apply the RFID chip or the QR code to the license
fleetster offers the company three possible solutions:
1. The Manual Driver's License Check: The data of the visual check is entered manually into the system by the fleet manager. The advantage here is that no important data is forgotten due to the user interface and an automatic reminder is sent via the system when the check has to be repeated.
2. Driver's License Check via Photo: The driver's license is photographed and transferred to the system. The fleet manager then verifies the driver's license manually. The advantage of this option is that the employees do not have to be on site. If the fleet manager does not know the employee, a passport photo can be inserted for comparison.
3. Driver's License Check via Hardware: In this case, the driver's license is scanned via an RFID chip or a QR code and the Driver's License Check is considered to have been passed.
The advantage with fleetster is that all models are integrated in a B2B mobility platform, enabling digital fleet management, from car reservation to electronic driver's logbook. Thus, numerous products can be combined, individually according to the company's requirements.
fleetster has ten years of market experience in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and worldwide. fleetster's applications are independent of time and location. fleetster software is intuitive to use and all data can be saved with one click. All fleetster applications comply with the current requirements of the Data Protection Act and the General Data Protection Regulation. This tested data protection quality enables a legally compliant electronic driving licence control.
Conclusion on the Driving Licence Check
fleetster offers the right solution for every company to carry out and document Driver's Licence Checks in a legally compliant manner, minimising the company's liability risk and at the same time saving valuable working time that can be used for important projects.