Driver documents: licence, SRC, psychotechnical report

Even if a vehicle’s paperwork is complete, a trip carries the same risk if the driver’s licence class does not match the vehicle or the professional competence certificate has expired — every precaution taken on the vehicle side is wasted if the driver side is left unchecked. The right way to track driver documents is to watch licence class, the SRC certificate and the psychotechnical assessment in the same ledger, under the same rule as the vehicle’s own documents.

Which documents, and what they show

• Licence class — the classes defined in Turkey’s Highway Traffic Regulation (such as B, C, D and the E suffixes) show which vehicle types a driver is authorised to operate; minibuses and buses require a different class than a passenger car.
• SRC certificate (professional competence certificate) — a mandatory qualification for drivers engaged in commercial passenger or freight transport under the Road Transport Regulation, issued through the bodies of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (mevzuat.gov.tr, Karayolu Taşıma Yönetmeliği).
• Psychotechnical assessment — Article 34/1-e of the same regulation requires drivers within its scope to obtain a report from an authorised health institution showing they are physically and psycho-technically fit for the profession, and to renew it at set intervals (mevzuat.gov.tr).

Psychotechnical and similar health reports fall under the “special category personal data” defined in Article 6 of Law No. 6698 (the Turkish data protection law, KVKK); the law forbids processing health data without the person’s explicit consent, and permits it only under specific exceptions with extra safeguards (mevzuat.gov.tr, Law No. 6698). How these documents are stored and who can see them matters as much as their expiry date; a document number that identifies whose licence or SRC certificate it is, is itself an identifier, and it should never be exposed to a user without the right permission.

Eligibility matters, not just whether a document exists

“Does the driver have a document” is not enough by itself; whether the licence class actually matches the vehicle type needed for the trip has to be checked too. Assigning a driver who only holds a B-class licence to a minibus trip is a bad assignment even if their SRC certificate is valid. The same rule should apply when setting a driver as a vehicle’s default driver, not only at the moment of a trip assignment — otherwise a mismatch made once becomes a standing one.

Hiring and periodic renewal belong in the same ledger

When a driver joins, their licence, SRC certificate and, where relevant, psychotechnical report are recorded; if one is missing, the driver’s card shows it from day one. Because a document like the psychotechnical report has to be renewed at intervals, its expiry date is tracked the same way as any other document, with a warning before it lapses — checking once at hiring and forgetting about it afterwards is the most common mistake with this kind of document.

Example

Say a team of 10 drivers includes one driver whose psychotechnical report expired last week, and another whose SRC certificate expires in three weeks. Planning a minibus trip for tomorrow, the planner first tries to assign the driver with the expired psychotechnical report; the system refuses the assignment, and the planner has to assign someone else. The driver whose SRC expires in three weeks shows a warning on screen instead — the assignment goes through, but the warning is recorded.

How driver document tracking works in Rotenta

1. The driver card holds licence class; the availability query in the fleet management module filters which drivers’ licence class matches the vehicle type a trip needs.
2. In the document tracking ledger you define document types for the driver — SRC, psychotechnical assessment — and enter an expiry date.
3. Sensitive documents like the psychotechnical report are stored as encrypted metadata; the document number is only decrypted for authorised users and never enters the general search index.
4. When a trip is assigned, the system calls the document gate: an expired SRC or psychotechnical report refuses the assignment, and a missing document warns or blocks depending on your firm setting.
5. Passing an exception with a reason is written to the roles and audit trail screen with the actor and the reason, so which trip went out under which warning stays visible later.
6. The “who’s available” screen lists only drivers whose documents and licence class are currently in order, automatically leaving out a driver whose document has expired.

Frequently asked questions

Can I filter drivers by licence class?

Yes; the availability query shows which drivers’ licence class matches the vehicle type a trip needs.

How is a sensitive document like the psychotechnical report protected?

Its metadata is stored encrypted, the document number is only shown to authorised users, and it is never included in the general search field.

What happens when an SRC certificate expires?

A trip assignment against an expired SRC certificate is refused; the decision is left to the system rather than a person.

Can a trip still run if a driver document is missing?

It depends on your firm setting: you can choose to let a missing document through with only a warning, or block it outright.

Who can see these documents?

Only roles with the right permission see sensitive fields such as the document number; who viewed which record is kept in the audit trail.

How driver documents work alongside vehicle documents is covered in how to track vehicle documents, and what else to check when choosing fleet software is in how to choose fleet management software — both part of the fleet management category. To talk through setup, get in touch.