How to Onboard Delivery Drivers in the UK

How to onboard delivery drivers in the UK is a sequence, not a form. Collect identity and, where the person is an employee, complete the Home Office right-to-work check before they start. View the licence with a DVLA share code and keep a record. File insurance for paid courier work, agree the pay, and name who approves the first shift.

Last updated 25 September 2026. The short list lives on the delivery driver onboarding checklist. This page is the order of the gates and why each one exists.

• The order that keeps a driver off the road until the file is complete
• Identity and right to work
• The licence record
• Insurance and the van
• Pay, before the first shift
• What software can do here
• After they start
• Frequently asked questions
  • How long should onboarding take?
  • What is the first check?
  • How do I check the licence?
  • What if the driver uses their own van?

# The order that keeps a driver off the road until the file is complete

Do not publish a time promise. Onboarding takes as long as the documents take to come back. A missing insurance certificate is a missing driver, not a slow form.

Name one person who may approve the first shift. If that person is on leave, the driver waits. A shared inbox is not an approver.

# Identity and right to work

GOV.UK says you must check that a job applicant is allowed to work for you before you employ them. You can check online when they give you a share code, check original documents, or use an identity service provider that offers Identity Document Validation Technology. British and Irish citizens cannot get an online share code. You check their original documents, such as a passport or passport card, or you use an identity service provider.

Keep a clear copy and the date of the check. GOV.UK says copies are kept for the employment and for two years after it ends. If the permission is time-limited, check again before it expires.

That page is written for employees. GOV.UK says the steps are different for other employment statuses, including freelancers and contractors. Do not paste an employee right-to-work process onto every self-employed courier and call it settled. The operator note is right-to-work checks for self-employed couriers. You could face a civil penalty if you employ an illegal worker and you have not done a correct check. Follow the Home Office guidance rather than a software vendor's summary.

# The licence record

Ask the driver to create a check code. GOV.UK says the code is valid for 21 days. You then use it once, with the last eight characters of the driving licence number, on the check service. It is a criminal offence to obtain someone else's personal information without their permission.

Write down the date, the entitlements, any penalty points or disqualification, and who looked. A later drivers licence points check is the same habit on a schedule your insurer or your carrier contract sets. The hub page is the driver licence check.

Northern Ireland licences use the nidirect service, not the DVLA code. Do not force a GB code onto an NI licence.

Zerity stores the document and the expiry date so a depot can see who is in date. It does not log into DVLA for you, and it does not replace the check code.

# Insurance and the van

Third party insurance is the legal minimum to drive on UK roads. It is not the same thing as cover for carrying other people's goods for payment. Before the first round, ask the insurer, in writing, whether the policy covers courier use for that van. Social, domestic and pleasure cover is the wrong product for paid delivery. Operators usually buy hire-and-reward cover. If the driver owns the van, you need their certificate, not a promise that "the van is insured".

Check the MOT where the vehicle needs one, and check that the van can do the round you are about to give them. A car on Amazon Flex is not a spare large van for a DPD round.

If the work uses a goods vehicle over 3.5 tonnes, or a van over 2.5 tonnes on international hire or reward, read operator licensing for vans over 2.5 tonnes and GOV.UK's operator licensing guide. Most UK-only car and van work at or under 3.5 tonnes does not need an operator's licence. Check the vehicle in front of you, not a rule of thumb.

# Pay, before the first shift

Agree the rate and the day they get paid. Drivers compare both. If you will raise the VAT invoice in the contractor's name, you need a written self-billing agreement and you should read HMRC self-billing for couriers. Zerity stores the agreement and produces the invoice from completed work. A live pay run does not switch over in a day.

Do not start a driver and "sort pay later". The first disputed week is when people leave.

# What software can do here

Driver onboarding software is a place to collect the documents, see which gate is open, and diarise expiry. That is the job. It does not complete a Home Office check, pull a DVLA record on its own, or insure the van.

Zerity is that file for UK courier depots and Amazon DSPs: onboarding, the documents above, expiry dates, and self-billed pay, at £6 per active driver per month. It is self-serve, with no contract and a 30-day money-back guarantee. More than 100,000 drivers have been onboarded on Zerity, across 50 or more UK fleets.

Use the checklist beside this page. Use driver compliance software when the same file has to stay in date after week one.

# After they start

Expiry is the second half of onboarding. A licence, a visa, an insurance certificate or an MOT that lapses on a Thursday takes the driver off Friday's wave. Put the dates in the file on day one and name who acts when a date is inside your warning window.

A named person in week one matters as much as the form. Someone at the depot should know the driver's name, the round, and how they get paid. Recognition later is a note that someone saw the work. It does not repair a file that blocked the start. The retention piece is courier driver retention.

# Frequently asked questions

# How long should onboarding take?

As long as the documents take to come back. Do not publish a fixed-minute promise. A missing insurance certificate is a missing driver, not a slow form.

# What is the first check?

Identity and, where the person is an employee, the Home Office right-to-work check before any start date.

# How do I check the licence?

Use the driver's DVLA share code on GOV.UK and keep a record of what you saw and when. The code lasts 21 days and can be used once. Zerity stores that record. It does not run an automated DVLA check.

# What if the driver uses their own van?

You need insurance that covers paid delivery, an MOT where it applies, and a vehicle that matches the round. Social, domestic and pleasure cover is not enough.