A glance at a plastic card is not a licence check.
The licence that costs a hire firm most is the one that looks fine: current photo, right name, six points and a disqualification behind it. The only place that truth lives is the DVLA record. The check is free; what stops firms doing it every time is that nobody remembers to, and that nothing records it when they do. KeyProof collects what the check needs before the hirer arrives, puts it one tap from the booking, and dates the answer onto the hire.
Private beta applications open, public launch January 2027The hirer pays their own £4.99 verification feeSet up with you by a founder
No firm has signed yet. KeyProof is choosing up to five UK hire firms for its private beta, set up and walked through their first real hire by a founder: request beta access.
KeyProof Ltd 17333773ICO ZC195906Own PI £1m + cyber £500k, Hiscox
Off the DVLA record. Not off a photo of a card.
- The hirer hands you a share code, and the last 8
- Inside the check-in link the hirer generates a one-time code through the DVLA’s own Share Driving Licence service, and gives the last 8 characters of their licence number. Both, because gov.uk refuses a share code on its own. Two fields, on their phone, before they arrive.
- You run the check yourself, free, on gov.uk
- One tap from the booking opens the government service with both values ready to paste. Full or provisional, current or revoked, points with their codes, any disqualification: the government shows you. KeyProof never contacts the DVLA and never sees your hirer’s driving record.
- It happens inside the booking chat
- The licence step is one part of the KeyProof link you drop into the Instagram or WhatsApp conversation you are already having. The hirer installs nothing, and you never hold a photograph of their licence.
- The answer lands on the hire record, dated
- The record says a share code was supplied and when the check was marked done, next to the identity check, the signed agreement and the condition photographs. The share code and the licence digits are erased at 30 days; the dated fact that you checked stays. We hold less by design.
A licence you eyeballed is a licence you cannot prove.
If a disqualified or unlicensed driver crashes your hire car, an insurer may dispute the claim, and a licence you eyeballed but never recorded is one you cannot prove you checked. What your own policy actually requires is in its wording; the point of the check is that you can show you did it. Schedules differ, so ask your broker which checks your cover requires before it will reference a driver, and keep the answer. The licence step is one of six things the same link collects, and they all land on one record. Walk it in the demo, or request beta access.
What every hire leaves behind
IdentityPhoto ID matched to a selfie
LicenceDVLA share code, for your own check on gov.uk
ConditionTimestamped photos, both ends
AgreementE-signed, sealed with a hash
DepositLogged, traceable to the hirer
Check the licence
before it checks you.
The DVLA’s own share code, checked before the keys move, stored as a result and not a photo.
KeyProof is selecting UK car hire operators for its private beta, ahead of public launch in January 2027.