January may feel like a fresh start for some but for South African truck fleet operators, their insurers and HR teams, it is fast becoming the most risky hiring month of the year. Post-festive season truck driver turnover, pressure to get vehicles back on the road and skills shortages across the transport sector are leading to rushed driver hiring and missed compliance checks.
According to local driver verification specialist Check Your Driver, “licence and PrDP (Professional Driving Permit) fraud spikes sharply at the start of the year as employers scramble to rebuild operational capacity.”
Check Your Driver managing director Leigh Johannsen says the pattern is consistent across provinces: “More than 50% of all foreign licences we verify return as fake,” she notes, adding that January “consistently shows the highest increase” in forged licences, falsified PrDPs, fake renewal stamps, mismatched identity details and forged training certificates.
PrDP shortcuts carry real legal exposure
Under South African law, professional drivers operating goods vehicles above 3 500 kg, passenger transport vehicles or dangerous goods vehicles must hold a valid PrDP. Yet Johannsen warns that PrDP verification is often rushed or treated as an administrative formality during January hiring drives.
“Document fraud is a business model,” she says. “January is their (fraudsters) peak season because they know that employers are desperate.”
A common failure point, she adds, is the assumption that a licence renewal or PrDP card ‘looks legitimate’. Fake renewal dates, forged expiry extensions and altered PrDP categories remain among the most frequent red flags identified during verification checks.
Insurance liability starts at appointment, not at claim
From an insurance perspective, the risk is immediate. Insurers assess compliance from the moment a driver is appointed, not from the date of an incident. Where a driver does not hold a valid licence or PrDP at the time of employment, insurers are entitled to repudiate claims, regardless of driving history or fault.
“Ignorance is not a defence. Compliance is a responsibility,” Johannsen says.
Insurers are increasingly requesting formal licence and PrDP verification reports when claims are lodged in the first quarter, particularly following serious accidents involving heavy commercial vehicles or passenger transport operations.
One invalid PrDP can cascade across the business
For fleet and logistics operators, a single non-compliant driver can trigger consequences well beyond a rejected insurance claim. Invalid licences or PrDPs can place operators in breach of the National Road Traffic Act, undermine contractual obligations, expose clients to liability and damage safety records and reputations.
What begins as a January staffing shortcut can quickly escalate into a legal, financial and operational crisis.
Check Your Driver says its verification process relies on direct confirmation with custodians of record rather than online databases, providing insurers and operators with defensible evidence.
Johannsen notes that the company’s reports have consistently held up under scrutiny. “No report we’ve ever issued has been overturned with proven evidence,” she concludes.
Editor’s comment: South Africa’s PrDP regulation leaves little room for interpretation – either a driver is compliant or they are operating illegally, and January’s hiring pressure should not dilute a fleet’s legal responsibilities. With insurers, traffic authorities and courts increasingly unforgiving of documentation failures, fleet operators would be wise to treat licence and PrDP verification as a front-line risk control, not a back-office task. In 2026, the cost of getting it wrong is simply too high.
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