The people on your bus never saw your driver's licence. You are the only one who can.
Passengers have no way of checking anything for themselves, and the standard a PSV operator is held to reflects that. Category D entitlement, Driver CPC and a tachograph card, checked on a cycle you can produce on request.
The one fleet where the consequence is not a fine.
Most licence compliance failures are measured in penalties. This one is not. An unlicensed, disqualified or unqualified driver at the wheel of a full bus is not a compliance finding waiting to happen, it is an incident waiting to happen — and the inquiry afterwards goes directly to what you knew about that driver and when you knew it. That is why the scrutiny applied to PSV operators is the heaviest of any fleet, and why a spreadsheet reviewed once a year does not meet it.
The mechanics are the same as an HGV fleet with the tolerances pulled tighter. Category D or D1 entitlement on the driving record. A Driver CPC that has to be valid on every day the driver works, not merely renewed at some point within five years. A tachograph driver card with an expiry of its own. None of the three tells you anything about the other two, and the one that lapses is always the one nobody had a date for.
Then there is the gap between checks. A driver disqualified on a Tuesday is still on your rota on the Wednesday unless something tells you, and passengers are boarding the whole time. Checking more often where there is more risk, and being alerted the moment a check finds a disqualification, is the difference between standing a driver down and finding out at the next annual review.
What a PSV operator has to keep track of
DVLA licence checks
Entitlements, penalty points and photocard expiry, straight from the DVLA.
CPC and tachograph card validation
For HGV and PSV drivers.
Digital D906
The driver authorises on their phone. No paper, no chasing.
Risk-based check frequency
Drivers with more points are checked more often, automatically.
Critical-change alerts
A new disqualification or a jump in points surfaces immediately.
Audit-ready evidence
A timestamped record of every check, for DVSA or an insurer.
Everything it checks, including the parts this page has not needed.
Charged per check, not per driver.
- Driver licence check
- £1.99 per check
- Digital D906 authorisation
- £1.00 once every three years
- Business insurance validation
- £1.00 only when a document is verified
- Vehicle MOT & VED
- £1.00 once, when checked
- NI & foreign licence check
- £5.00 per manual check
Adding a driver costs nothing, and a driver who never authorises never generates a charge. What each modifier means.