Driving Licence Verification for vehicle users in Vodafone Regional Operations

Vodafone has responded to concerns raised by Connect on behalf of members about the introduction of the new driving license checking process for drivers of company vehicles.
Following discussions over several months with members your Connect representatives identified a number of key issues that we felt that Vodafone needed to address in their approach to introducing the new system.

We stressed that members required assurances that the new process was necessary and reasonable. Given concerns and previous experiences we also asked that consideration was given to ensure that personal information would be managed appropriately and confidentially.
To make those assurances and take this change forward constructively we suggested that Vodafone needed to:

• Recognise that employees concerns were genuine and required consideration and a measured response.
• Ensure that it was clear to those being asked to complete the mandate that these changes were, in part, necessary due to legal obligations stemming from the Vodafone's 'duty of care' to employees and other road users.
• Give assurance of safeguards around storage of information and usage by third parties.
• Understand that issuing blanket threats and deadlines without responding to concerns is not the most effective way of managing change.
• Extend the period of mandate signing to enable employees to consider the points above.
  

Vodafone has now provided a document to managers and team leaders that gives a fuller explanation of the background to the new system.

We believe that the document and revised approach that Vodafone has adopted is reasonable and addresses the key concerns that raised by Connect and our members. We will, of course, be monitoring this process and welcome feedback from members going forward.