Driving licence check software for vehicle hire
Run the DVLA share-code check at the counter and keep the result as evidence — meeting your insurer and company-policy requirements, without pretending licence checks are a blanket legal duty.
Part of Complys Self-Drive Hire. 30-day free trial, no card required, when the platform launches.
Before you hand over a vehicle, you need to know the person in front of you is entitled to drive it — and be able to prove, later, exactly what you checked. Complys builds the DVLA driving-licence check into the hire itself, so the check happens at the counter and the result is stored against that hire, the hirer and the vehicle.
Just as important is how we talk about it. Checking a hirer's licence is not, in itself, a blanket statutory duty for a hire company. It is driven by your motor-trade or hire insurer's conditions, by the need to permit only lawful, insured use, and by your own company policy on who may take which vehicle. Complys is built to meet those requirements and evidence them — not to invent a legal obligation that doesn't exist.
The hire evidence chain
From licence check to signed handover to return condition, Complys keeps the evidence of every hire connected to the vehicle, hirer and agreement. This page covers one link in that chain.
- Hirer identity & document captureIn the first release
- DVLA licence & share-code checksIn the first release
- Rental agreement & e-signatureIn the first release
- Check-out condition & photographsIn the first release
- Deposits & paymentsLaunching next
- Return / check-in conditionIn the first release
- Damage capture & photo evidenceIn the first release
- Structured damage comparison & disputesLaunching next
- Fines / PCN administration & liability transferPlanned
- Evidence pack exportIn the first release
- Tamper-evident audit trailIn the first release
How the DVLA licence check actually works
There is no longer a paper counterpart to check — it was abolished on 8 June 2015 and has had no legal status since. A driver's endorsements, categories and disqualifications live online, and the way a hire company sees them is through the driver's own DVLA check code.
Using GOV.UK's "View or share your driving licence information" service, the driver generates a check code that is valid for 21 days and can be used once. With that code and the last eight characters of their licence number, you can view what they're entitled to drive, any penalty points and any current disqualifications. Complys walks staff through capturing the code, running the check with the driver's permission, and saving the result against the hire.
- • The driver generates a check code at gov.uk/view-driving-licence and shares it with you
- • You check entitlement (categories), penalty points and disqualifications
- • The result — what was checked, when, and by whom — is stored against the hire
- • No paper counterpart is involved; the online record is the source of truth
Consent, data protection and honest wording
A DVLA check needs the driver's permission — the check code is how they give it. GOV.UK is explicit that it is a criminal offence to obtain someone else's driving-licence information without their permission, so the share-code model isn't just convenient, it's the lawful route. Complys captures that consent explicitly as part of the hand-over.
Licence data is personal data, so you need a lawful basis under UK GDPR (usually contract and legitimate interests for the hire, plus the driver's consent for the DVLA check) and a sensible retention period. Complys stores the evidence against the hire with an audit trail, and — because the platform is compliance-first — encourages you to keep it only as long as you actually need it for the hire, a dispute, a claim or a fine.
Insurer requirement, company policy — not "the law says so"
This distinction matters, and Complys is deliberate about it. Compulsory motor insurance is the law (Road Traffic Act 1988, Part VI): you must not use, or permit someone to use, a vehicle without insurance. But the specific licence-check rules — minimum age, minimum time held, points limits, excluded offences — are conditions your insurer sets, not statutory requirements. Others (say, no drivers under 25 on the performance fleet) are your own company policy.
So Complys lets you record checks against the requirement they actually satisfy — insurer requirement, industry practice or company policy — rather than mislabelling everything as a legal duty. That accuracy protects you: it means your staff apply the right rule for the right reason, and your evidence says exactly why a hire was allowed or refused.
A note on MyLicence and bureau checks
You may have heard of MyLicence. It connects insurers and brokers to DVLA licence data at the point of quote, via the Motor Insurers' Bureau — it is an insurer-side data service, not a counter tool a hire desk uses. For operator-side checking, the routes are the driver's DVLA check code (built into Complys) or a commercial, DVLA-authorised checking bureau for higher-volume or scheduled re-checks. Complys is designed around the share-code workflow and stores whichever evidence you rely on against the hire.
The check is only useful if you can produce it later
A licence check that lives in someone's memory, or a screenshot on a phone, is worth very little when an insurer queries a claim or a hirer disputes that they were ever entitled to drive. In Complys the check is one link in the hire's evidence chain: it sits alongside the hirer's verified identity, the signed agreement, the check-out condition and photos, and everything that follows — all exportable as one evidence pack.
That's the point of doing it inside a compliance platform rather than a booking add-on: you don't just perform the check, you can prove you performed it, show what it returned, and show who allowed the hire on the strength of it.
What’s ready, honestly
Complys Self-Drive is launching. Here is exactly where the capabilities on this page stand — labelled at the feature level, never marketed as available before they ship.
Check entitlement, penalty points and disqualifications using the driver's DVLA check code, and store the result against the hire. Included in Complys Self-Drive from launch.
Frequently asked questions
Is checking a hirer's driving licence a legal requirement?
Not as a blanket statutory duty in itself. What the law requires is that a vehicle is insured and used lawfully (Road Traffic Act 1988). Licence checks are driven by your insurer's conditions, industry practice and your own company policy — Complys helps you meet and evidence those, and is careful never to present a check as a legal obligation it isn't.
How does the DVLA check work without the paper counterpart?
The paper counterpart was abolished in June 2015. The driver generates a DVLA check code at gov.uk/view-driving-licence (valid 21 days, single use); with that code and the last 8 characters of their licence number you can view entitlement, penalty points and disqualifications. Complys captures the code and stores the result against the hire.
Do we need the driver's permission?
Yes. The check code is how the driver gives permission, and it is a criminal offence to obtain someone's licence information without it. Complys records that consent as part of the hand-over.
What about data protection?
Licence data is personal data under UK GDPR. You need a lawful basis (typically contract and legitimate interests, plus consent for the DVLA check) and a retention period tied to the hire, any dispute, claim or fine. Complys keeps the evidence with an audit trail and supports sensible retention.
Is this MyLicence?
No. MyLicence is an insurer/broker data service accessed via the Motor Insurers' Bureau at the point of quote — not a hire-desk tool. Operator-side checks use the driver's DVLA check code (built into Complys) or a DVLA-authorised checking bureau.
Can we set our own rules on who may drive?
Yes. You can record checks against the requirement they satisfy — insurer requirement, industry practice or company policy — so a rule like 'no under-25s on the prestige fleet' is applied and evidenced as company policy, not mislabelled as law.
Where does the licence check sit in the hire?
It's step two of the evidence chain, after identity and before the agreement. Complys keeps it connected to the hirer, the vehicle and everything that follows, and it can be exported as part of the hire's evidence pack.
Is licence checking available at launch?
Yes. The DVLA share-code licence check is part of the first release of Complys Self-Drive Hire, alongside identity, agreements, check-out/check-in and the evidence pack.
Explore the rest of the hire evidence chain
- Self-Drive Hire software → — the full evidence-chain platform
- DVLA check code for car hire → — the operator's guide to share codes
- Rental agreement & e-signatures → — the next link in the chain
- Vehicle condition report app → — check-out and check-in evidence
See the evidence chain in action
Book a demo or register your interest, and we’ll set you up as soon as Complys Self-Drive launches.