How to re-check self-employed driver documents (UK)

Short answer: Keeping self-employed driver documents in date means one live file per person, a dated expiry on every item that can lapse, and a named re-check before that date. Re-check licence details via GOV.UK view or share your driving licence, then stop work when a required document is out of date.

Day-one onboarding is only the start. The operational job is repeating the checks on a schedule your insurer, carrier contract and UK law actually require. This page is the re-check checklist. The first-day sequence lives on how to onboard delivery drivers in the UK and the delivery driver onboarding checklist. Tracking versus verification is defined in driver document tracking. Reviewed against primary GOV.UK, DVLA, HMRC, ICO and legislation.gov.uk sources on 12 October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice.

• The re-check checklist at a glance
• 1. Employment-status check
• 2. Identity
• 3. Right to work (one gate, not the whole story)
• 4. Driving licence check via DVLA check code
• 5. Hire-and-reward insurance
• 6. Vehicle MOT and tax
• 7. Operator and client requirements
• 8. Contract or services agreement
• 9. UTR and Self Assessment registration
• 10. Data protection and UK GDPR for driver documents
• 11. Document expiry tracking and re-checks
• Making it repeatable: where Zerity fits
• Frequently asked questions
  • How often should I re-check a self-employed driver's licence?
  • Is hire-and-reward the same as third-party motor insurance?
  • Do I need an operator's licence for every van?
  • How long should I keep driver document copies?
  • What should happen on the expiry date?
  • Who is responsible for the DVLA and right-to-work checks?
  • Where does right to work sit in this checklist?
• Sources

# The re-check checklist at a glance

Name one person who may clear a driver after a failed or overdue re-check. A shared inbox is not an approver.

# 1. Employment-status check

GOV.UK employment status separates rights status from tax status. Worker, employee and self-employed change holidays, pay rules and who owes which duties. The contract label is not the test. Re-check status when the real working pattern changes: fixed rotas, restricted substitution, or closer day-to-day control.

Keep a short dated note on the file. The longer rights analysis is employment status for self-employed couriers. IR35 remains a separate tax question on IR35 for couriers.

# 2. Identity

Record what you saw, when you saw it, and who looked. A clear copy of the photocard or passport page, the date, and the checker is enough for the ops file. Re-open identity when the name, face or document number no longer matches what you hold. Identity is not a right-to-work check. Do not treat a photocopy of a licence as a Home Office prescribed check.

# 3. Right to work (one gate, not the whole story)

From 1 October 2026 the illegal working civil penalty scheme covers more than employees. Section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025, in force from 1 October 2026, extends it to people engaged on a worker's contract and to individual subcontractors. It can also make a business further up a contracting chain liable for the person who actually does the work, including a substitute. If you engage self-employed drivers, check their right to work before they start. Use one of the Home Office's prescribed methods: a manual check of original documents, a Home Office online check using a share code beginning with 'W' plus their date of birth, or a digital check through a registered right to work digital verification service provider. Keep a clear copy and the date of the check for the length of the engagement and for two years after it ends. If permission is time-limited, check again before it expires. Civil penalties start at £45,000 per illegal worker for a first breach and £60,000 for a repeat breach. Follow the Home Office employer's guide to right to work checks (1 October 2026).

# 4. Driving licence check via DVLA check code

Ask the driver to create a check code on View or share your driving licence. Each DVLA check needs a new check code. GOV.UK says the code must be used within 21 days and can only be used once. You then use it, with the last eight characters of the licence number, on Check someone's driving licence information. GOV.UK states it is a criminal offence to obtain someone else's personal information without their permission.

Write down the date, entitlements, any penalty points or disqualification, photocard expiry, entitlement expiry, and who looked. Many carriers treat an expired photocard as a block even where entitlement continues. Record both dates and follow the stricter of the law and the contract. Northern Ireland licences use nidirect, not the DVLA GB code. The habit page is the driver licence check.

# 5. Hire-and-reward insurance

GOV.UK vehicle insurance states you must have motor insurance to drive on UK roads, and that third-party cover is the legal minimum. Road Traffic Act 1988 section 143 makes it an offence to use a motor vehicle on a road or other public place without a complying policy, and an offence to cause or permit someone else to do so.

Third-party social, domestic and pleasure cover is not the same product as cover for carrying other people's goods for payment. Before the first paid round, and again at every renewal or vehicle change, ask the insurer in writing whether the policy covers hire-and-reward or courier use for that van and that driver. Keep the certificate or schedule, the named vehicles and drivers if it is a fleet policy, and the expiry date. If the driver owns the van, ask for their certificate, not a verbal assurance.

# 6. Vehicle MOT and tax

Getting an MOT explains when a vehicle needs a test: by the third anniversary of registration, or by the anniversary of the last MOT if it is over three years old, with some vehicles tested earlier. You can check status on Check the MOT status of a vehicle and history on Check the MOT history of a vehicle. GOV.UK says you can be fined up to £1,000 for driving without a valid MOT, and that you cannot renew vehicle tax if the MOT has expired.

Tax is a separate date. Use Check if a vehicle is taxed with the registration number, and Tax your vehicle when renewal is due. An expired MOT stops you renewing tax, but it does not itself cancel tax that is already in force, so check both dates independently. A van used for paid rounds must be taxed for the road. SORN is for a vehicle kept off public roads; GOV.UK says you cannot use it on the road until you tax it again, except to go to or from a pre-booked MOT or other testing appointment. Put MOT and tax (or SORN status) on the file as separate fields and alert early enough to renew or re-tax.

# 7. Operator and client requirements

Your carrier or client pack often adds documents beyond the Road Traffic Act minimum: induction evidence, branded PPE, vehicle size rules, or a named depot. Store those with the same expiry discipline.

Most UK-only car and van work at or under 3.5 tonnes does not need a goods vehicle operator's licence. If the work uses a goods vehicle over 3.5 tonnes, a van and trailer together over 3.5 tonnes, or a van (or van and trailer) over 2.5 tonnes carrying goods for hire or reward in Europe, read GOV.UK's operator licensing guide and operator licence for vans over 2.5 tonnes. Check the vehicle in front of you, not a rule of thumb. Multi-site operators should keep the same file shape at every location: start at depots.

# 8. Contract or services agreement

Keep the signed services agreement, the rate, the depot, the vehicle rules and any substitution clause. Re-issue or amend when those facts change. A pay dispute in week three is usually a missing or outdated agreement from week one. If you raise VAT invoices on behalf of a VAT-registered contractor (self-billing), you need a written self-billing agreement in place before you start. It needs a start date and an expiry date (the expiry can follow the contract term; HMRC advises reviewing agreements every 12 months), and the invoices must meet HMRC's rules, including the 'SELF-BILLING' marking. See Self-billing (VAT Notice 700/62). That process is also covered on HMRC self-billing for couriers and product invoicing.

# 9. UTR and Self Assessment registration

Self-employed people often need to register for Self Assessment and obtain a Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR). Check if you need to send a Self Assessment tax return is the HMRC tool for the current tax year. Register for Self Assessment is how someone tells HMRC they need to complete a return.

Operators commonly ask for a UTR so pay and tax admin stay tidy. That does not make you the driver's tax adviser, and it does not decide employment status. Record what you collected and the date. Point the driver to HMRC's own pages for registration deadlines and penalties.

# 10. Data protection and UK GDPR for driver documents

Licence images, right-to-work copies and insurance certificates are personal data. The ICO's storage limitation principle says you must not keep personal data for longer than you need it, and that you should document retention periods wherever possible. The ICO's collecting and keeping employment records guidance adds that UK GDPR does not set fixed retention periods for workers' information: you justify the period from your purposes and other legal duties, then erase or anonymise when the need ends.

Collect only what the engagement needs. Restrict who can open identity and immigration copies. Set a retention schedule for each document type, including how long you keep copies after the engagement ends. Delete or anonymise when that period ends. Do not keep a driving licence image for marketing. How Zerity handles encryption and access is summarised on the security page. How to inspect a document on arrival is the document verification guide.

# 11. Document expiry tracking and re-checks

This is the operating system of the checklist. Every item above that can expire gets a date, an owner and a warning window. An alert on the morning the card lapses is a record of a miss, not a control. If depot policy says the document must be in date, the driver does not go out.

A workable diary usually includes photocard and entitlement expiry as separate fields; licence re-check dates set by your insurer or carrier; insurance renewal, MOT and tax as separate fields; time-limited right-to-work follow-ups where a check applies; and contract review dates.

Courier compliance software is the depot file: licences, right-to-work evidence and expiry dates for every driver. Driver onboarding software is where new documents enter that file. Driver compliance software is the person-level view after week one. Subcontractor driver management covers the wider self-employed workforce pattern.

# Making it repeatable: where Zerity fits

Zerity is one operating system for compliance and operations across your self-employed workforce. For this checklist, that means:

1. Collect driver documents and agreements through onboarding, so you can see what is still missing before the first shift.
2. Store each expiry on compliance, with a warning before a licence, right-to-work permission or policy lapses, so the diary is not a spreadsheet tab per depot.
3. Keep one multi-depot account, with drivers tagged by depot and by the network or client each site works for.

Zerity stores the driving licence record, the date it was checked and the expiry, and alerts you before it lapses. Checking the licence stays with the operator, using the DVLA service or a licence-checking provider your insurer accepts. It is an offence to cause or permit someone to drive a vehicle they are not licensed to drive. Zerity records right-to-work evidence, the date it was reviewed and the follow-up date; the prescribed check, and the decision, stay with the operator. It does not insure the van. Software shortens the chase. It does not take over the operator's checks, or the insurer's certificate.

If you are still building the first-day sequence, use the onboarding checklist beside this page. If you already have drivers on the road, start with the expiry diary: list every active person, every date that can stop a van, and who acts when a date enters the warning window.

# Frequently asked questions

# How often should I re-check a self-employed driver's licence?

As often as your insurer and carrier contract require, and whenever the photocard or entitlement is about to expire. Each DVLA check needs a new check code. GOV.UK says the code must be used within 21 days and can only be used once.

# Is hire-and-reward the same as third-party motor insurance?

No. Third-party cover is the legal minimum to drive on UK roads. Hire-and-reward or courier use is a different insured purpose. Confirm the use in writing for the vehicle and the driver.

# Do I need an operator's licence for every van?

No. Most UK-only work in vans at or under 3.5 tonnes does not need a goods vehicle operator's licence. Heavier vehicles, van-and-trailer combinations over 3.5 tonnes, and vans over 2.5 tonnes carrying goods for hire or reward in Europe do. Check GOV.UK's operator licensing guide against the actual vehicle.

# How long should I keep driver document copies?

UK GDPR does not set a single number of years. The ICO says keep personal data only as long as you need it for your purposes and other legal duties, document those periods, then erase or anonymise. Right-to-work check records have their own Home Office rule: keep them for the length of the employment or engagement and for two years after it ends, then securely delete them.

# What should happen on the expiry date?

If the document must be in date, the driver does not work that day. The alert should have fired early enough to renew or re-check. An alert on the morning of expiry only records the miss.

# Who is responsible for the DVLA and right-to-work checks?

The operator. Zerity stores the driving licence record and right-to-work evidence, the date each was checked or reviewed, and the next expiry, and alerts you before anything lapses. The operator remains responsible for the DVLA licence check, made through the DVLA service or a licence-checking provider your insurer accepts, and for the prescribed right-to-work check: a manual document check, a Home Office online share code check, or a check through a registered right to work digital verification service provider.

# Where does right to work sit in this checklist?

As one gate, with a follow-up when permission is time-limited. It is not the whole compliance story. Most day-to-day stoppages after onboarding come from licence, insurance, MOT and tax dates.

# Sources

• Employment status (GOV.UK)
• Employer's guide to right to work checks (1 October 2026) (GOV.UK)
• Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 section 48 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Illegal working penalties: codes of practice for employers (GOV.UK)
• View or share your driving licence (GOV.UK / DVLA)
• Check someone's driving licence information (GOV.UK / DVLA)
• Road Traffic Act 1988 section 87 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Vehicle insurance (GOV.UK)
• Road Traffic Act 1988 section 143 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Getting an MOT (GOV.UK)
• Check the MOT status of a vehicle (GOV.UK)
• Check the MOT history of a vehicle (GOV.UK)
• Check if a vehicle is taxed (GOV.UK)
• Tax your vehicle (GOV.UK)
• Register your vehicle as off the road / SORN (GOV.UK)
• When you need to make a SORN (GOV.UK)
• Goods vehicle operator licensing guide (GOV.UK)
• Value Added Tax Regulations 1995, regulation 13 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Self-billing (VAT Notice 700/62) (HMRC)
• Check if you need to send a Self Assessment tax return (HMRC)
• Register for Self Assessment (HMRC)
• ICO storage limitation principle
• ICO collecting and keeping employment records