In the spirit of ‘Digital By Default’, commercial online access to Tacho and CPC data is within the reach of the UK Haulage industry. Allowing commercial checking of this data would deliver huge efficiencies for hauliers along with a significant contribution to increased road safety.
However the data, which rests with the DVSA & DVLA, is only currently accessible through a narrowcast single-driver, single record system. Licencing trade association, the ADLV, has presented a substantive survey to the DVLA illustrating that all parties are now keen to have this data commercially and fully available online. Armed with these results, they believe that the government will now listen carefully to industry voices and that commercial CPC and Tacho data checking will soon be available online through the same commercial systems that provide driver licence checking.
Set up in early 2014, as the paper driving licence counterpart was about to disappear, the ADLV Association for Driving Licence Verification (www.adlv.co.uk) is now the leading provider of on-line licence and driver data checking. The ADLV also aims to support detection of non-compliance and to reinforce UK HSE and Road Safety policies.
The scale of the operation is impressive. Through its 13 member organisations, the Association will make over 2.5 m checks in 2016/17 for fleet customers. This number is likely to increase further as they are now urging fleets to make more frequent licence checks on a regular basis. In the ADLV’s view, this means the introduction of at least regular quarterly licence checks.
Since the end of last year, the ADLV has also focussed on ensuring regular fleet access to a broader range of licence related driver data. One of the key areas of demand has come from the UK Haulier sector. This demand centres around the fleets’ requirement for easy online access to Tacho and CPC data. The Data, which is gathered and maintained by the DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency), is already available but only as a single user transaction where the driver obtains the data personally. In the ADLV’s view, this should be far more open to large employers regularly checking their driver’s records online both en masse and on on a case by case basis. Quite apart from the significant road safety dividend, electronic access to this data would mean that Hauliers would not have to rely on manual systems to know the CPC and tacho data regarding their own drivers. By automating these process major efficiencies, time savings and reduced costs would all be available.
Coincidentally, much of this data is also held by the DVLA, where ADLV members already gets its current driving licence data feed. The data, held by the DVLA, includes expiry dates for CPC and tacho cards along with tacho card numbers and address details. Making this available online would go a long way to meeting Hauliers’ demands and it’s a relatively simple exercise to add this data to the ADLV’s existing feed. Beyond this, at a later date, the ADLV also hopes to make the data available online along with a number of other DVSA datasets such as individual driver CPC skills.
Initial discussions between the ADLV and the DVLA have been cordial and sympathetic. However, despite all the effort on both sides, there is of course a hard-edged difference between warm words and translating this into action. Naturally enough the relevant government teams were keen to see evidence of the demand for commercial online checking and to know whether drivers are not renewing their CPC currently. The DVLA were also interested in whether employers felt that they didn’t have ready access to the information they needed and whether there was evidence that making the information commercially available online would help compliance, road safety or deliver efficiencies.
Naturally, the ADLV saw this as an opportunity and decided to survey over 100 senior UK Haulage fleet decision makers many of whom are responsible for over 100 vehicles. The survey set out to identify not just the demand but also to make sure that the right data reached the right people should it become available. The results were illuminating.
The first question asked whether any of the respondent companies had drivers who had either missed or ignored the DVSA’s reminder and subsequently did not renew their CPC training? A significant 1 in 10 had. The figures became even more significant when respondents were asked whether not knowing the training status of their drivers presented the respondents with a significant challenge? In all, 75% of those surveyed felt that this was indeed a challenging issue.
Nearly 80% felt that access to this information would also significantly benefit road safety. This would be particular helpful, they felt, in reminding drivers about compliance, in raising awareness of the risks of fraud and highlighting training issues.
Of particular note, however, was the figure of 91 % of the respondents who believed that online commercial access to CPC information, as an integral part of driving licence checks, would help them to meet their compliance obligations and reduce their reliance on visual checks.
In a similar vein, a further 91% felt that the availability of CPC information would make their own monitoring of driver entitlement easier, by supporting existing HR systems and acting as a single point of reference for all entitlement checks. In fact, it was across a wide range of detailed areas, the survey respondents continued to agree that online the data would be of considerable benefit to their organisation.
The survey’s findings were positively received by the DVLA and the ADLV is now waiting for confirmation that access to CPC and tacho data is now firmly on the DVLA’s product road map for delivery via Access to Driver Data (ADD), the system ADLV members use for driving licencing checking. This would certainly recognise the unambiguous voice of the UK Haulage industry.
The ADLV’s Technical Director of the Kevin Curtis, has also recently added “This is an important step for the ADLV and its members to give confidence to the UK Haulage industry that digital Tacho and CPC data is to be taken seriously. We are confident we can work with the DVLA over the coming months to plan out the new digital data-sharing platform so that employers can access this data on the same service level as current UK driving licence checks via the ADD service. By accessing the CPC & Tachograph data using the online service, UK employers will be able to fulfil their duty-of-care responsibilities in a faster and more efficient way, which in turn will bring huge benefits to UK road safety.
In these days of ‘Digital By Default’ the ADLV is confident that it will be allowed to make the data available. Should this be the case, the number and depth of checks will increase markedly. This would be both good for business and make the roads safer.
