A change to Rule 21 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules means that a driver who commits five or more traffic offences within a single year can be considered for licence disqualification or other action, as Times Drive reported. The rule applies to offences recorded from 1 January 2026, and each one-year period is assessed on its own. The same amendment tightened challan procedures, including a 45-day payment deadline and possible blocking of licence and registration services for non-payment.
For a fleet, this turns a driver's challan history into an operational risk.
Why fleets should care
- A suspended licence is a driver off the road. For a small fleet, one driver out can mean a vehicle idle.
- Challans are already a hiring signal. The government is also exploring a rating index for commercial drivers based on challan history.
- Offences cluster. Drivers who collect challans for speeding or lane discipline are often the ones who later have crashes.
A practical plan
- Know your numbers. Check each driver's challan history regularly, not only at hiring.
- Set an internal threshold well below five, for example a coaching conversation after two offences in a year.
- Find the pattern. Speeding, signal jumping and lane violations each point to a different training need.
- Coach, then measure. Targeted refresher training, followed by a check that behaviour actually changed.
- Make it fair. Route and schedule pressure causes some offences. Fix those causes too.
Where simulator training fits
Refresher training works best when it is specific and measurable. A driving simulator lets a trainer recreate the situations where a driver keeps making mistakes, such as merging, hills, rain or night, and repeat them until the response improves. Every session is scored, so the fleet has evidence that the coaching worked.
Our VRMMDS simulator covers four light and four heavy vehicle types across seven terrains, with rain, fog and night, a real steering wheel with force feedback and pedals, instructor fault injection and automated scored reports.
Managing driver risk across a fleet? See driver training for fleets or book a technical call.