Key takeaways
- A photocopy is not a check. Confirm the guarantor and visit the address in person before anything else.
- Verify the licence record behind the card, not the plastic. Match the name, the photo and the expiry date.
- Ask for a character report from the appropriate authority and call the last employer yourself.
- A company vehicle carries more value and more people, so verify every driver the same way and keep the report on file.
A stack of photocopies is not a background check. It is a stack of photocopies.
Anyone can hand you a licence, a NIN slip and a smiling photo. None of it tells you whether the address is real, whether the guarantor exists, or whether the man holding your keys left his last job under a cloud.
A driver background check is the work of confirming all of that before you hire. It is not glamorous and it takes a few days, but it is the difference between hiring a driver and inviting a stranger to drive off in your car. Here is how to do it properly.
Start with the guarantor and the address
The guarantor is the spine of the whole check. Get one, sometimes two, and get their own ID and address as well.
Then visit. A guarantor who is real, reachable and has something to lose changes how a driver behaves. A guarantor you never met and cannot call is no guarantor at all.
Do the same with the driver's home. Go there. See it. A real address you can return to is worth more than any document, because it means the person can be found if something goes wrong.
Verify the driver's licence, not just the card
A licence card is easy to fake. The record behind it is not.
Check the expiry date first, then confirm the name and photo match the person sitting in front of you. After that, confirm the licence details against the issuing record rather than trusting the plastic on its own.
The point is simple. You are not checking that they own a card. You are checking that the card is real and the licence is current.
Request a character report
This is the formal record of conduct, and it is the one most serious employers ask for.
The proper route runs through the appropriate authority, which issues a character certificate after its own checks. You can read how the appropriate authority handles character certificates so you know what the process involves before you start.
It will not catch everything, no single check does. But a clean character report from the right office is a strong signal, and the act of requesting it tells a driver that you are serious.
A reference can be coached and a card can be copied. An address you have stood in front of and a guarantor you have spoken to are harder to fake.
Call the previous employers
Do not just collect names. Call them.
Ask the last employer the questions that matter. Did this person drive for you, for how long, and would you take them back. The hesitation in a voice often tells you more than the answer itself.
If a driver cannot give you a single previous employer who will speak for him, that is information too. Treat it as a flag, not a dealbreaker, and dig a little harder before you decide.
Why this matters more for a company vehicle
For a personal car the risk is yours alone. For a company vehicle the risk spreads.
More people share the keys, the asset is worth more, and an unverified driver can expose the business to theft, accidents and liability that lands on the company name. One bad hire on a fleet vehicle is not one person's problem. It is everyone's.
That is why a business should verify every driver the same way, every time, and keep the report on file. If you run several vehicles, our fleet management tools sit alongside verification so the whole operation stays accountable, not just the hiring.
What Otrac's verification covers
Doing all of this yourself is slow, and it is easy to skip a step when you are busy. That is the gap we fill.
Our driver verification and background checks cover identity, the residential address, the guarantor, the driver's licence, the character report route and previous-employer references. We do the visiting and the calling, then hand you a clear report instead of photocopies you still have to chase.
Verification also pairs naturally with hiring. If you are starting from scratch, our driver recruitment service finds the candidate and verifies them in one go. And if you want the wider picture on the whole process, read our guide on how to hire a trusted driver in Nigeria. If you would rather hire a car with a ready-vetted driver instead, see our notes on car hire with a driver in Nigeria.
