Using agency drivers without inheriting a compliance gap

Agency drivers are a normal part of covering peaks and absence. What varies enormously between operators is what they actually hold about the individual who turns up — and an assurance from an agency is a commercial protection, not evidence about a named person on a named day.

What you need before the shift, not after

The checks an operator would carry out on its own driver do not become unnecessary because somebody else employs them: licence category and validity, CPC status, any endorsements, and confirmation of hours already worked elsewhere in the relevant period. That last one is the most often skipped and the most likely to cause a problem, because an agency driver may have worked for another operator earlier in the week.

Where the agency holds the information, the operator still needs it in a form it can produce later. A file that says "supplied by agency" is not a record of a check.

Induction is the other half

An agency driver is operating an unfamiliar vehicle, from an unfamiliar yard, on unfamiliar routes, frequently at short notice. The walkaround check and defect reporting route need explaining rather than assuming, and it takes ten minutes that nobody has on the morning they are needed.

In practice: the hours nobody asked about

An operator books agency cover for a Friday. The driver completed a full week with another operator Monday to Thursday. Nobody asked, because the booking was made on Thursday evening and the question is awkward.

The infringement is the operator's. The agency supplied a driver; it did not represent that the driver had hours available, and nobody had asked it to.

Common mistakes

• –Relying on an agency assurance rather than holding evidence for the individual
• –Not asking about hours already worked elsewhere in the period
• –No induction, so an unfamiliar driver uses an unfamiliar defect route
• –No record of which agency driver drove which vehicle on which day
• –Applying a lower evidential standard than to employed drivers
• –Evidence obtained after the shift rather than before

Agree the standard with the agency, in writing

The time to establish what evidence arrives, and when, is when the supply arrangement is set up — not at seven on the morning a driver is needed. An agreement that specifies exactly what is provided before a driver attends removes the awkward conversation entirely, because it has already been had.

Worth auditing occasionally rather than assuming. Agencies change their own processes and lose the people who understood the requirement, and an assurance obtained two years ago describes an organisation that may no longer work that way.

Getting this right

Hold the same evidence you would for an employed driver and keep it the same way, in the driver file — because the question, when it arrives, will be about a named individual on a named date rather than about the agency.

• –Specify the evidence standard in the supply agreement
• –Require it before attendance, not on request afterwards
• –Ask about hours already worked elsewhere in the relevant period
• –Induct on the vehicle, the yard and the defect route
• –Record which agency driver drove which vehicle, and when
• –Audit a sample of agency-supplied evidence periodically

One practical test: produce a file for last month

Pick an agency driver who worked for you last month and try to produce what you hold: licence and category, CPC status, and any record of hours worked elsewhere in that period.

Most operators can produce the first two and not the third, and the third is the one most likely to cause an infringement — because an agency driver may have worked a full week for somebody else before arriving. Asking is awkward on the morning and considerably less awkward than the alternative.

• –Specify the evidence standard in the supply agreement
• –Require it before attendance, not on request afterwards
• –Ask about hours already worked elsewhere in the relevant period
• –Induct on the vehicle, the yard and the defect route
• –Record which agency driver drove which vehicle, and when