Supermarket chain Iceland Foods says it has significantly reduced the time it takes to licence check its drivers, having started working with DriverCheck.

Iceland has more than 6,800 drivers, operating a fleet of around 1,600 delivery vans, and a further 60 vans for maintenance engineers, as well as around 250 company cars.

It is using DriverCheck’s latest API (Application Programming Interface), which connects directly into the back-office systems at Iceland’s Deeside headquarters. This is said to reduce admin time drastically, freeing up staff to focus on other core activities, and allow the delivery of instant results, reducing the risk of errors and removing the possibility of double-keying.  

Iceland fleet manager James Roberts said: “Before we installed the API, we had to resort to manual input which, with 6,800 drivers, you can imagine was very time consuming and labour intensive.

“On our delivered sales side, we may have several drivers for each vehicle. So, ensuring that our drivers are legally entitled to drive is vitally important for us to be able to provide the service to our customers.

“Now, using the API, once our HR department had added the driver’s details to our system, we notify DriverCheck electronically and their system automatically emails the driver with an e-declaration to complete. All details are uploaded overnight and any exceptions automatically flagged up.

“We have a number of DVLA codes which prevent the driver being accepted, such as convictions for drink driving, drug driving and causing death by dangerous driving. We accept drivers with six points on their licence, provided they do not include any of our prohibited codes.”

DriverCheck managing director Yvette Giannini said the API was the perfect solution for busy HR, fleet and other line managers as it allowed different software systems to communicate directly with each other.

She said: “The results are delivered in real time and reduce human errors by automating the verification process. As a result, this frees up your HR or fleet team’s time for more strategic tasks. 

“For a business like Iceland Foods with over 6,000 drivers, it is the ideal solution.”