Section 172 Notice for a Company Vehicle: You Have 28 Days to Name the Driver

The envelope has a police return address on it and the registration is one of yours. The person who was driving is not the person who opened the post, and the 28 days run from the day the notice is served. This is a request for information with a deadline, and what you can do next depends on your records.

This is general information for England and Wales, not legal advice. It covers section 172 notices only, so take legal advice on your own notice.

What is a section 172 notice and why did it come to the business?

Under section 172 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, where a driver is alleged to have committed an offence such as speeding, the person keeping the vehicle must give the driver’s identity if a chief officer of police, or someone on their behalf, requires it. That is often the business, not the driver. A company’s notice is duly served if it is served on its secretary, and the proper address is the registered or principal office, so it may land with someone who has never seen the car.

How long do you have to respond to a section 172 notice?

The Act gives 28 days beginning with the day on which the notice is served to give the information. GOV.UK says, for speed camera notices, to return it within 28 days and that you may have to go to court if you ignore it.

Separately, under section 1 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988, for offences it covers, which include speeding, a person cannot be convicted unless they were warned at the time, or a summons or notice of intended prosecution was served within 14 days of the offence. That concerns prosecution, not this time limit.

What to do in the first few days

Note the date on the notice and the date it reached you. If you are unsure when it was served, take legal advice. Pull out the registration, date, time and place.

Ask whoever holds the records for the facts, and keep the notice itself. Devon and Cornwall Police say only the person it is addressed to can complete it. Dorset Police cannot accept section 172 forms by email but takes online nominations, so follow your own notice.

How do you work out who was driving?

Work through the records you already hold: your allocation or key log, the hire agreement and handover record, the shift or booking record, then the journey record. Dorset Police says the company’s logs or records should help. Use the journey record to narrow the search, then check who had the keys. If your records have gaps, start with fixing gaps in your driver record.

What details do you give the police?

Dorset Police’s form asks for the nominated person’s name, date of birth, full address with postcode, and email and phone. It asks for a driving licence number only if you are admitting to being the driver.

Hire, rental, taxi and dealership cars: who do you name?

Section 172 asks for the identity of the driver. Devon and Cornwall Police say to nominate the person or company the vehicle was hired or loaned to. For rental fleets, the agreement and handover record show who had it at that date and time. For courtesy and demo cars, check your loan or test drive record. In taxi and PCO fleets, check your shift or swap record. If the hirer says someone else drove, or your records disagree, take legal advice before the deadline.

What if you cannot say who was driving, or you do not respond?

Section 172(4) says the keeper is not guilty if they show they “did not know and could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained who the driver of the vehicle was”. For a company, section 172(6) says that defence does not apply unless it also shows “that no record was kept of the persons who drove the vehicle and that the failure to keep a record was reasonable”. Whether either can be shown depends on the facts, so keep a record of who drives each vehicle. If you cannot say who was driving, take legal advice before the 28 days run out.

If you reply after the 28 days, section 172(7)(b) says you are not guilty if you show you gave the information as soon as reasonably practicable afterwards, or that it was not reasonably practicable to give it. That is for you to show, so take legal advice.

Under section 172(5), a director, manager, secretary or similar officer can also be guilty if the offence is proved to have been committed with their consent or connivance, or to be attributable to their neglect. Failing to give the information can be an offence under section 172(3), subject to the defences in the section. The Sentencing Council gives the maximum as a Level 3 fine, which it lists as £1,000.

What not to do with a section 172 notice

• Do not ignore it. Failing to comply can be an offence.
• Do not name someone your records do not support. Dorset Police says knowingly and wilfully giving a false statement in response to a notice of intended prosecution is an offence.
• Do not pass the notice to the driver. Dorset Police and Devon and Cornwall Police both say not to.

How a record of who had the vehicle helps you answer fast

A record of who had each company vehicle and when makes a notice mostly an admin task. On a short rental, the handover record names the hirer and the trip history shows the car was out. Traknova’s GPS tracking page says “Trip history for up to 12 months”, and its fleet management page says “Assign vehicles to drivers and track assignments automatically”. A journey record shows where a vehicle was, not who was driving, so pair it with an assignment record and still check. The full fleet GPS tracking guide has more.

Frequently asked questions

Can the company get penalty points?

The Sentencing Council guideline says a court must endorse and impose 6 points, but for limited companies endorsement is not available and a fine is the only available penalty. Schedule 2 to the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 makes endorsement obligatory if the offence is committed otherwise than by virtue of section 172(5), which covers company officers, or (11) (Scotland). Take legal advice on how this applies.

What if the notice arrives after 14 days?

Section 2(3) of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 says missing the 14 day requirement is not a bar to conviction where the court is satisfied, for example, that neither the accused’s nor the registered keeper’s details could with reasonable diligence have been found in time. What a late notice means for you depends on the facts, so take legal advice rather than ignore it.

The notice has a deadline. A record of who had the vehicle makes it quicker to answer.

Want to see how that record would work for your fleet? Have a short conversation with us.