Driving Record before hiring???

Our insurance company has suggested that we can require applicants to bring us a copy of their driving record upon hiring (in Illinois these can easily be obtained for $12). The thought is that we don't always know who might be in a position to be driving while on company time. We recently hired someone for maintenance, and now he's going to be running errands for us and we've needed to add him to our insurance policy. Has anyone ever done this? Thoughts? I always thought it could only be done if driving was a requirement of the job offered. Many thanks!

Comments

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  • We not only request driving records of our employees, but we moitor the records on an ongoing basis. I have signed releases from all employees for this. If there is any activity on anyone's record, I get an e-mail from our "service" notifying me.

    The reason for checking all of our employees is because, even though someone may not drive a road vehicle for us, they may operate a lift, a forklift, or other mororized vehicle inside the plant. I would not want someone jumping on a forklift who has a reckless driving or more than one speeding ticket in the last year. Right now I have 6 employees disqualified intil certain dates and 3 other employees on probation, which means if they get one more they become disqualified.
  • Since many of our positions requiring daily driving, we run a post offer DMV check, our broker for Workers Comp/Liability insurances offers it as a free service. The offer is rescinded if the insurance carrier will not insure the driver. I have a form all employees sign when they are offered the position, take a look.

    All Company Employees:

    Please be advised, Company’s insurance carrier conducts yearly reviews of the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) records of all Company employees. In the event of an accident when an employee is driving a personal vehicle while conducting Company business, Company’s insurance may become a secondary insurer, depending on the circumstances. Since many of the positions at Company require frequent driving, the carrier reviews the driving records and determines if an employee is ‘insurable’ to the carrier. If an employee is not insurable by the standards set by the insurance carrier, employees will not be allowed to drive in any work related capacity.

    Applicants who have been offered a position with Company will have their DMV record reviewed. If the applicant is determined to be uninsurable with the carrier and driving is required as part of the applicant’s job duties Company may rescind the offer of employment.

    Any employee who drives after being informed they are ineligible to drive for Company in any work related capacity will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.

    I have read the above notice and understand that my DMV record will be reviewed yearly to determine if I am eligible to drive for Company. Should it be discovered that my DMV report contains information that prevents me from driving in any work related capacity, I will have the opportunity to verify the information with DMV before I am no longer permitted to drive.


    _____________________________________________ __________________
    Name date


  • HRH: The requirement for vehicle/driving records checks for potential employees and current employees does not usually come from legal requirement, but it becomes legal issues when there is some reason like Carrier Insurance Coverage. We do not require any potential driving employee to provide us with a driving history. We do that and it is part of our employment procedures that we will hire pending the out come of a records check. We run the DMVs for all employees who might drive on our behalf. we do this in order to add someone to our list of drivers of company vehicles or even their personal vehicles when they use it to do our company business. If one becomes uninsurable, one becomes disqualified in the job task of driving safely. In some driving jobs, one could loose their availability through their own mis-conduct to become no longer qualified to accomplish the work/position.

    You should get with your fleet carrier and get their help to develop your company policy and procedures.

    PORK
  • Great information! Thank you ALL!
  • All applicants for driving positions must submit thier driving record along with their application. Per our insurance company, we have our own points system. We only go back 3 years on the record. The three statuses are Pass, Watch and Fail. If you are in the Fail category, you are not eligible for hire.
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