Built for UK fleets, sole traders & small businesses

Driver fines · done properly

Docking a fine from a driver’s wages is the expensive way —
and it’s probably illegal.

You can recover a fine without raiding a payslip. Almost Legal triages every fine your fleet gets, fights the ones worth fighting, and transfers liability the lawful way — with a funded appeal, driver looped in.

§13A wage deduction is unlawful without prior written authorisation.
  • Fight your first 100 fines free
  • No card needed*
  • Cancel anytime

*No card needed if we can verify your business. Almost Legal is AI drafting software grounded in UK law, not a law firm — you review and send.

Why the old way is a liability

The admin fee you add and take off their pay is where the tribunal claim starts.

The fine lands on the company first — as registered keeper, you’re liable before the driver is. So fleets recharge it, add an admin fee, and dock it from wages. Under s.13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 that’s an unlawful deduction unless the driver authorised it in writing, in advance — and it’s now one of the fastest-growing complaints in the tribunal system.

The numbers behind the risk

3rd

Unauthorised wage deductions are now the third most common employment tribunal complaint — and one of the fastest-rising.Source: MoJ Employment Tribunal quarterly statistics

<0.5%

of London PCNs ever reach appeal — most businesses just pay, then recharge the driver.Environment & Traffic Adjudicators Annual Report 2024/25 — londontribunals.gov.uk

~50%

of those appeals succeed when they are made.49.4% of appeals won, 2024/25 — Environment & Traffic Adjudicators Annual Report

Two ways to recover a driver’s fine

Only one holds up.

✕ The “just dock it” way
  • Deduct straight from the next payslip
  • Admin fee bolted on, no signed basis
  • Consent asked for after the fine — too late under s.13
  • Driver left to feel robbed; recharged a fine you could’ve beaten
  • Every deduction a claim waiting to be filed
✓ The Almost Legal way
  • Liability transferred properly, with a funded appeal
  • Driver looped in by link — their side, their photos
  • Beatable fines fought, not silently recharged
  • Written authorisation captured up front, on record
  • An audit trail that keeps you out of the tribunal

How it works

From windscreen to sorted in minutes.

Every fine lands in one inbox, gets a strength check, and leaves as a decision — fought, paid, or transferred. You set the policy; the system does the chasing.

Intake

Post or windscreen

Office post scanned in seconds. Drivers snap windscreen tickets with their own standing link — tagged the moment they do.

Triage

The right call per ticket

Fight it, pass it to the driver with a funded appeal, or pay — never a silent wage grab. Anything criminal is flagged with its deadline.

Evidence

Drivers answer from the cab

A few tick-boxes, their own words, photos from their phone — it lands back on the fine as if you’d typed it yourself.

Stop paying twice

First the fine, then the tribunal. End both.

Fight your first 100 fines free. No card needed if we can verify your business.

This page provides general information about compliant fine handling, not legal advice. Almost Legal is AI drafting software grounded in UK law, not a law firm — you review and send everything it produces.