What’s the difference between a vehicle keeper and an owner?
In the UK, a vehicle registration document called a V5 is used to identify the person who is using (keeping) the vehicle. V5s are issued by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and are referred to as Registered Keeper documents.
However, holding a V5 doesn’t prove that a person is the owner of a vehicle. The registered keeper is the person who is actually using the vehicle and not necessarily the owner or the person who is paying for it. The keeper is the person or organisation that’s responsible for the vehicle when it comes to official actions such as communications from the Police, the DVLA or from a parking operator who is issuing a parking charge.
Typically, the keeper is a member of the public who owns and drives their own car but this is not always the case. For example, company-owned vehicles are often issued to employees as ‘company cars’. Similarly, companies may issue their commercial cars, vans or trucks to employees. Also, rental companies own fleets of vehicles to be hired out to members of the public or for business employees to drive.
In effect, the keeper is the ‘day-to-day user’ of the vehicle and this keeper is the person who is responsible for moving traffic or parking contraventions. A registered keeper will usually be regarded as responsible for parking tickets such as PCNs.
Identifying the keeper or driver of a vehicle can be complex, time-consuming and costly, especially when Transfer of Liability is involved.
Zatpark’s fleet PCN software, Fleet Checker accelerates the Transfer of Liability of PCNs to hire or fleet companies. This hugely reduces the administrative burden on the parking and fleet operations staff. The Zatpark platform enables operators to remove the need to manually process the Transfer of Liabilities and, combined with Zatpark Fleet Checker, significantly reduces the costs associated with issuing postal notices.
Learn about Zatpark Fleet Checker
To learn more about Zatpark Fleet Checker contact us today for a no-obligation chat.
Neil is a writer focused on simplifying complex technology, operations and regulatory subjects for our public and private sector audience and highlighting how Unity5’s SaaS solutions simplify complex business processes.
