HGV driver licence checks and driver records. Match the driver to the lorry before it goes out.

The new starter with C1 is fine in the 7.5 tonne box van. Put them in the 18 tonner on a Monday when you are two drivers short and they are driving without the entitlement. Nobody meant it to happen. The planner just did not know what each lorry weighed and what each driver held. HGVault does, because every lorry carries its plated weight and every driver their categories.

Categories and weights

GOV.UK’s driving licence categories page sets the lines. C1 covers vehicles between 3,500 and 7,500 kg maximum authorised mass, with a trailer up to 750 kg. C covers vehicles over 3,500 kg, again with a trailer up to 750 kg. C1E and CE add a trailer over 750 kg, and for C1E the combined maximum authorised mass cannot exceed 12,000 kg. The same page says drivers who passed their car test before 1 January 1997 are usually allowed to drive a vehicle and trailer combination up to 8,250 kg.

Restriction codes are printed on the back of the licence. On GOV.UK’s list of driving licence codes, 107 means not more than 8,250 kilograms. HGVault keeps each category with any codes against it, as typed, and shows a 107 in plain words beside the category it sits on.

Gross weight on every lorry and van

HGVault asks for each lorry’s and van’s gross weight, as on its plate or the V5C. A lorry up to 7,500 kg can go to a driver with C1. Over that it needs C, and so does a lorry with no weight recorded, with a grey note on the driver’s page saying the weight is missing. A van over 3,500 kg needs C1 or C as well. A higher category covers the lower one, so C covers C1 and CE covers C.

A driver who can take some of the fleet and not the rest is not stopped. They get a grey note on the Drivers page and their own record saying what they can take, and if your booking system is linked, a booking on a lorry they cannot drive shows as a clash before it goes out.

Trailer combinations are not judged. Nothing records which unit pulls which trailer on a given day, so C1E and CE, and a 107 on them, are kept on the record and shown clearly for the office to read, and the call on a combination stays with you.

The rest of the driver’s record

Each driver’s page holds the licence number and when the photocard runs out, the categories, the Driver CPC card with the periodic training logged against it, the tachograph card number and expiry, and when the next D4 medical is due. Lorry drivers must do 35 hours of periodic training every 5 years to keep their Driver CPC, and the page adds up the hours in the five years to the card’s date. Of the D4 medical, only two dates are kept: when the last one was done and when the next is due. Nothing about anyone’s health is recorded.

Cards can be photographed in a card-shaped frame, on the driver’s own phone or in the office: the licence front and back, the Driver CPC card, the tachograph card, and an ADR certificate for drivers who carry dangerous goods. The photos are encrypted and kept in a private folder the web server never serves.

Cannot drive, in red

No category for any vehicle the fleet runs, a photocard, Driver CPC card or tachograph card run out, a D4 medical overdue, or a licence check that found the licence not valid or a disqualification: any one of them puts the driver in red as Cannot drive, with the reason. Dates coming up show 60 days ahead by default, on the dashboard, the calendar and the reminder email.

Licence checks by GOV.UK check code

The free GOV.UK route needs a check code from the driver, and chasing drivers for codes is the bit that slips. When a driver’s check is due, every six months to start with, the next time they scan a lorry their phone asks them to get a code from View or share your driving licence information and type it in, ticking that they agree to the check.

In the office, Check now has the code and the last 8 characters of the licence number ready to copy, with the link to GOV.UK’s Check someone’s driving licence information. The office makes the check there and records what it showed: categories, points, endorsements and any disqualification. GOV.UK says a check code is valid for 21 days, so one that runs out unused is said so on the driver’s page and the phone asks again. Nothing is fetched from GOV.UK. The GOV.UK pages are linked, and the result is whatever the office records.

Each check gets a risk score from 1 to 10 from the points and offences it found, and the next check falls due by that score: low at your usual interval, medium every 3 months and high every month, all settings you can change. Checks are kept for good. One recorded in error is voided with the reason and never deleted.

Who sees what

The full licence number and tachograph card number are for the office only. A read-only login, such as your transport consultant’s, sees the dates and what each check found, the numbers by their last four characters and never a check code. The code itself is never written in the audit trail.