How to Prepare for a DVSA Operator Compliance Visit

What is a DVSA operator compliance visit?

The published note is vehicle operator maintenance investigations (opens in a new tab). The standard the investigation uses is the Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness (opens in a new tab), which traffic commissioners treat as the starting point for whether maintenance arrangements are satisfactory. The goods vehicle operator licensing guide (opens in a new tab) is the transport manager’s list of what must be kept and produced. DVSA Earned Recognition is a voluntary scheme, not this investigation.

Why might DVSA contact an operator?

The maintenance-investigation questions describe several starts. A roadside prohibition in the last 15 months is one. A roadworthiness most serious infringement is another: a penalty or conviction from using a vehicle with a dangerous defect on the brakes, steering, wheels, tyres or suspension. A category 1 prohibition endorsed “S” can generate that investigation, and that case is reported to the traffic commissioners whatever the rest of the maintenance outcome is.

Examiners also look at prohibitions issued at annual test, and at defects that should have been found before the vehicle was presented. A desk-based assessment by DVSA’s Remote Enforcement Office can review prohibitions and records without a visit to the yard. A fleet check looks at vehicles and trailers of different types, ages and stages in the inspection and test cycle. Deliberate use without a current annual test, or with the wrong test class, is reported to the traffic commissioners.

Those are the triggers the current guidance names. An investigation is a check of the system that produced the encounter. It is not a verdict on its own. A clear roadside stop does not close the file, and a satisfactory explanation sent back to DVSA does not by itself stop a report to the traffic commissioners.

What records might be reviewed?

A file, in the investigation guidance, is the relevant maintenance documents for one vehicle or trailer. Examiners sample files. Where prohibitions were issued in the last 15 months, they look at those prohibition files where they can, and at a random sample as well. The periods already published on this site are the ones to have ready. This page does not replace them.

Examiners do not read every sheet on a large fleet as a matter of course. The guidance sets a minimum number of vehicle files from the size of the fleet and from how many prohibitions were issued in the sample period. Where there were prohibitions, those files are the ones to be able to explain: what the defect was, whether the driver should have seen it, and what changed afterwards. A random file from a quiet vehicle can be asked for as well. “We only kept the bad ones” is not a sample.

• HGV daily walkaround checks: the days the vehicle was used, nil reports, and defect reports with the repair.
• HGV PMI inspections: safety inspections against the interval you declared, and the brake result with the sheet.
• Tachograph infringements explained: downloads, analysis, and what you did about a finding.
• How often to check an HGV or PSV driving licence: the usual three-month guidance.
• DVLA driver licence checks for employers: consent, the result, and a rise in points.
• What records a transport manager should keep: which period belongs to which file.
• The monthly compliance checklist: the review you do before anyone asks.

Maintenance records

The investigation compares the interval you declared with the dates on the sheets. Safety inspections, including brake tests, are expected inside the ISO weeks you notified. A planner should show inspections, the annual test and calibration dates at least six months ahead. Manual systems can be a wall chart. Digital systems are acceptable when the dates can be produced. A planner that says one interval, and sheets that show another, is the gap that gets scored. Suspending the inspection schedule while a vehicle is off the road for longer than the next inspection is something operators do for seasonal vehicles or long repairs. The sheet should show that the vehicle was not in use, not that the inspection was quietly skipped.

Every safety inspection needs a brake-performance assessment, kept with that sheet. Inspection and repair records are kept for at least 15 months, including vehicles you have sold or taken off the licence. You must produce a copy if a traffic commissioner asks. A contractor’s written agreement stays on the same file. Intermediate checks, where you do them, are labelled as intermediate checks and are not counted as the full inspection. The detail is in the PMI guide. The statutory note is safety inspection records.

Daily checks and defects

The investigation questions treat walkaround checks as unsatisfactory when the fleet check finds defects a driver should have reported, when safety inspections keep finding those defects with no driver report, or when prohibitions are driver-responsible. The record for a day the vehicle worked is the check. A nil report is the guide’s shorter recommendation, at least three months. A defect report, with the assessment, the repair and the repairer, is kept for at least 15 months.

A prohibition endorsed “S” is, in the examiner’s view, a sign that the operator or the driver should have known about the defect: from the walkaround, from the inspection, or from the way the vehicle was being used. The investigation then asks whether your records show that you did know, and what you did. An immediate prohibition and a delayed prohibition are both in that review. An “X” endorsement, where the examiner accepts the defect was not something the system should have caught, is still recorded. You should be able to say which of your files match which endorsement.

How the check is done, and how a dangerous defect is kept off the road, is in HGV daily walkaround checks. Defect and repair records are summarised on defect and repair records.

Tachographs and drivers’ hours

The licensing guide keeps this file separate from maintenance. Download and store driver-card data at least every 28 days, and vehicle-unit data at least every 90 days. Keep drivers’ hours records, including the downloads and the analysis, for at least 12 months. Keep working-time records for at least two years. Those are not the same file. An infringement letter lives with the hours record it explains. It does not get a third retention period.

At the roadside the driver still has to produce the record for the current day, and the previous days the rules require. The investigation at base is the other half: whether you downloaded on time and whether anyone read the result. A file that was deleted at 12 months can meet the drivers’ hours duty and still fail the two-year working-time duty. Keep those clocks apart when you lay the documents out.

For most HGV work the tachograph is showing the assimilated drivers’ hours rules. GB domestic rules are a different regime and are not the 4.5-hour break or the 9-hour driving limit. Tachograph infringements explained keeps those regimes apart. The statutory note is tachograph records.

Driver licences

The licensing guide expects regular checks on drivers’ licences, usually every 3 months, and a valid Driver CPC card where the driver needs one. That interval is guidance on a proper system. It is not a statute that makes an annual check an offence by itself. A DVLA enquiry needs the driver’s permission: a one-off check code, or a signed D906/ADD declaration for a repeat check.

Frequency, including HGV and PSV entitlement, is in how often to check an HGV or PSV driving licence. Consent, what the check shows, and a rise in points are in DVLA driver licence checks for employers.

Operator licence

The investigation checks that the licence is held by the correct legal entity, and that a change of entity was notified within 28 days. Vehicles in use should be specified as the licence requires. A vehicle that is off the licence, or out of the licence’s scope, can still be inspected and the prohibition still noted. Operating centres are the places you declared. The safety-inspection interval on the licensing service is the interval the sheets have to match. Discs should be current and displayed where the guide requires them. An examiner who finds the wrong legal entity tells you the operation is not licensed as it stands, and still finishes the investigation.

Financial standing is a condition of a standard licence. This guide does not state a pound figure. The amount, if you need it, is the one on the current GOV.UK page for your licence type. The statutory note for the licence itself is the operator licence.

Transport manager evidence

The investigation questions ask whether the transport manager or responsible person has shown effective and continuous management of the operation. There is no separate certificate that proves it. The evidence is ordinary. The inspection sheet was reviewed before the vehicle returned to service. The download was analysed, and a repeat was not left for the next month. A licence-check result that failed, or that showed more points than the last check, has a note of what you decided. A prohibition file can be opened and explained without a search through a cab.

A dashboard that says the fleet is compliant, with none of those documents behind it, is not that evidence. The monthly routine for looking is the transport manager monthly compliance checklist.

What happens if problems are identified?

DVSA may report the outcome of a maintenance investigation to the traffic commissioners. Where shortcomings are put to the operator, the operator is asked for an explanation of the action they will take. That reply is sent on with the visit report. A satisfactory explanation does not by itself stop a report. An investigation that began from a roadworthiness most serious infringement is reported whatever the other scores are. The practical point is to answer with the records, not with a promise that the records do not support.

The Senior Traffic Commissioner’s summaries (opens in a new tab) say failure to meet the licence obligations can result in revocation, suspension or curtailment. Not every case is a public inquiry. The same summaries describe warning letters, meetings, and preliminary hearings for less serious cases. A traffic commissioner who is considering regulatory action, and who is asked for a hearing, holds a public inquiry. The hearings guide (opens in a new tab) says that inquiry is not a criminal court. The commissioner looks at whether the licence requirements are met, including the records you are asked to bring.

None of that tells you the outcome of a particular file. The summaries group cases by how serious the failure is and by what has already been put right. A warning or a short curtailment is described for limited problems with strong positives. Suspension or a larger curtailment is described for persistent failure. Revocation is described where the requirements are not met, including where a most serious infringement makes revocation the question the commissioner has to answer. Undertakings can be offered. They are promises, and breaking them is itself a ground for action. A missing sheet is still only a missing sheet until that judgement is made. This guide does not rank an operator or forecast a hearing.

Preparing before DVSA arrives

The periods behind that list are in what records a transport manager should keep. Nothing on this page adds a new month count.

Could you produce everything today?

Pick the vehicle that was prohibited, or the one that failed its last test, and the driver who used it. A fleet check can also name a quieter vehicle. If the walkaround is still in the cab, the defect was a message, and the brake ticket is a photograph on a phone, the file is not one file. Time spent hunting is what an examiner sees, even when the check was done.

Centralised evidence means the check, the defect, the repair and the return are on the same vehicle, and the download, the analysis and the licence-check result are on the same driver. A second system that the operator cannot open does not count as produced. The test is this afternoon, not after a week of gathering paper. If you can do it for the vehicle they are most likely to name, you can do it for the quiet one in the sample as well.

FleetPro and compliance readiness

Walkaround photos, nil defects, signatures and defects are on Checks, and on the same walkaround inside Core, Compliance and Complete. PMI dates are on the fleet packages. The inspections screen on the maintenance feature can mark a completed inspection fit for service, or not fit until repairs are done.

Inspection-sheet uploads, the year planner, the compliance hub and general document storage are on Compliance and Complete. They are not on Core, and they are not on Checks. Workshop is a separate package. It holds the digital PMI, the job, brake-test evidence and its own fit-for-service outcome. It is not included in Core, Compliance or Complete.

Tachograph analysis and DVLA licence checks are separate modules. They are included on Complete, and available with Core and Compliance. A DVLA check still needs a signed consent. A scheduled tachograph or licence check that was never switched on is not a record.

You can open a trial and see the walkaround record, and the document, tachograph and licence-check tools where the package includes them. No card is taken at the start. When the trial ends, features lock until you speak with us. Start at organisation setup.

Questions operators ask

Is there one official visit called a compliance visit?

The published name for the yard-and-records look is a maintenance investigation, written up as a maintenance investigation visit report. A roadside stop, a fleet check and a desk-based assessment by the Remote Enforcement Office are other ways the same records get examined.

Will every shortcoming become a public inquiry?

No. DVSA may report an investigation to the traffic commissioners. The commissioners’ summaries also describe warning letters and preliminary hearings. A public inquiry is required when regulatory action is being considered and a hearing is requested. The file does not tell you which of those will happen.

What should be ready for one vehicle?

The walkarounds for the days it worked, the defects and repairs, the safety inspections against the interval you declared, and the brake results with those sheets, still held for at least 15 months.

What should be ready for one driver?

Card downloads inside 28 days, vehicle-unit downloads inside 90 days, drivers’ hours records for at least 12 months, working-time records for at least two years, and the last licence check you can open.