What Records Should a Transport Manager Keep? UK Compliance Guide

Why the file matters

An operator licence rests on a declaration that the vehicles will be kept fit and serviceable, and that the laws on driving and operating them will be met. The Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness (opens in a new tab) is the starting point traffic commissioners use when they decide whether those arrangements are satisfactory. The goods vehicle operator licensing guide (opens in a new tab) then tells the transport manager which records must be kept, and for how long, so that declaration can be shown rather than described.

A record that exists only in someone’s memory does not do that job. Neither does a workshop message that never reached the vehicle, or a photograph that never left a phone. The useful question is whether, this afternoon, you could open one vehicle and one driver and show the chain. A system that cannot be opened is not a system an examiner can assess.

The transport manager monthly compliance checklist walks that review in shorter form. This page is the retention map behind it. The daily walkaround guide, the licence-check frequency guide and tachograph infringements explained each take one part of the file in more detail.

How long each record is kept

Read the status column before the number. Legal requirement means the cited guide, or the regulations it points to, says the record must be kept for that period. Official guidance means the same sources recommend a period, or describe what to hold, without setting a month count. “No single period is set” is not an invitation to invent one.

Defects, inspections and brake tests

The roadworthiness guide says drivers’ defect reports used to record faults and rectification must be kept for at least 15 months. Any report that lists defects is part of the vehicle’s maintenance record and must be kept for at least 15 months, together with the assessment, the rectification work and the repairer. Electronic records of reported defects are acceptable, and they must be available for those 15 months along with the repair. An owner-driver who has no one else to hand the sheet to still records the defect and the remedial action and holds that record for at least 15 months.

Safety inspection records have the same minimum: at least 15 months for all vehicles, including vehicles sold or taken off the licence. Intermediate checks stay on that file. HGV PMI inspections explains the inspection. How long to keep HGV maintenance records sets the periods.

Brake evidence belongs on that file. A signed printout from a roller brake test, a plate tester or a decelerometer should be attached to the safety inspection record. Where the equipment cannot produce a printout, the inspector records the results on the inspection report, including temperature readings where they apply. A roller brake test taken up to 14 days before the inspection still needs its report on the vehicle’s maintenance file, so the person doing the inspection can see it. Where a decelerometer is used, the risk assessment is retained with the vehicle maintenance documents for 15 months and produced if required. Where braking work has been done because performance was unsatisfactory, the confirming test is kept as evidence of repair with the maintenance documentation. That is the same 15-month file, not a separate brake archive.

The licensing guide states the same minimum in plainer words: you must keep vehicle maintenance records for at least 15 months, and you must give traffic commissioners a copy if they ask. The shorter notes on this site are walkaround and defect reports, defect and repair records, safety inspection records and brake test records.

Nil-defect walkarounds

The same roadworthiness guide recommends that nil defect reports are retained for at least 3 months, as evidence the check was done. It does not put that recommendation in the same “must” sentence as the 15-month defect duty. Keeping a defect for three months because someone remembered the shorter figure is the mix-up this table is meant to stop. A nil report thrown away after a week also leaves a gap on the days the vehicle worked and nothing was found.

How the check itself is done is in the HGV daily walkaround guide. The public product page is walkaround checks.

Drivers’ hours, and a separate download clock

The licensing guide says you keep all drivers’ hours records for at least 12 months. That file is the download, the analysis, and analogue charts where they are still used. Download timing is a different sentence on the same page: download and store data from the vehicle digital tachograph unit at least every 90 days, and from the drivers’ tachograph cards at least every 28 days. The tachograph rules (opens in a new tab) state the same intervals. Missing a download is not cured by still holding last year’s file. Deleting the file at 12 months is not cured by having downloaded on time.

The limits are in HGV drivers’ hours rules. What the analysis is looking for is covered in tachograph infringements explained. The statutory note is tachograph records. Tachograph analysis on FleetPro is described on tachograph compliance.

Working time is not the 12-month file

Working-time records are a separate duty. The working-time annex (opens in a new tab) says records need to be kept for two years after the period in question, and for two years after the end of the reference period. The employer keeps them and must be able to show them to an enforcement officer. They are kept whether or not the operation works close to the average 48-hour week. Self-employed drivers in scope of the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005 keep their own working-time records for two years. A tachograph file deleted after a year can meet the drivers’ hours retention and still fail working time.

The statutory note, including the difference between the two clocks, is drivers’ hours and working time.

Records with no month count

The licensing guide says regular checks are carried out on drivers’ licences, usually every 3 months, and that vocational drivers have a valid Driver CPC card. It does not say “keep the licence-check printout for 15 months”, or for any other fixed period. What you can show is the result: who was checked, when, what the licence showed, and what you did if it was wrong. Frequency is in how often to check an HGV or PSV driving licence. Consent and the check record are in DVLA driver licence checks for employers. The statutory note is licence-check records.

Driver CPC is a qualification, not a filing rule. Driver CPC training (opens in a new tab) says a driver must do 35 hours of periodic training every 5 years to keep the card. The driver carries a valid card. That cycle is not a rule about how long to keep a photocopy.

The tachograph driver card is the same kind of item. The driver carries it. The guides set download intervals and a 12-month retention for the hours record. They do not set a separate retention period for a copy of the card. Lost, stolen or malfunctioning cards follow the reporting procedure on the tachograph rules page. The statutory note is the digital tachograph card.

The current annual test certificate belongs with the vehicle. The guides do not give old MOT certificates their own month count. Where test and inspection history forms part of the maintenance record, that history follows the 15-month maintenance duty already in the table. The statutory note is plating and the annual test.

Training notes, company policies and the agency-driver file are in the same position. The licensing guide expects drivers to be adequately trained and competent for the vehicles and equipment they use. An agency driver needs the same class of record for the days they drive. What an HGV driver induction includes is that pack. The guides do not publish a filing period for the training note or the policy itself.

Can the records be digital?

Yes, where the roadworthiness guide says so. Electronic records are acceptable as a general principle if they contain the essential information and can be made available for examination. For reported defects, the electronic record must be available for 15 months along with the repair. A safety inspection report stored electronically means the paper original does not also have to be kept. Daily walkaround checks can be completed on a handheld device and stored digitally.

The conditions are practical. The system needs a reliable date and time stamp, including where nil defect reporting is used. It needs a suitable method of digital signature, secure storage, and a way to show the vehicle was roadworthy at the start of the journey. Images should be easy to find by date and vehicle. Scanned paper is acceptable. The record should show what was checked and by whom, and there should be a clear end-to-end audit trail. Where a vehicle or trailer changes hands, the records — including digital ones — must still be available to the original operator for the period in this guide.

What a visit is described as asking for

The roadworthiness guide describes DVSA’s interest as the effectiveness of the maintenance system, not as one prescribed form. For the vehicle, that means walkarounds for the days it was used, defects with the assessment and repair, and safety inspections at the frequency you declared. Brake evidence sits with that inspection.

The licensing guide adds the driver side of the same visit. Tachograph calibrations are in date. Vehicle-unit data has been downloaded at least every 90 days and driver-card data at least every 28 days. Drivers’ hours records are still held for at least 12 months, and working-time records for at least 24 months. Driving licences are checked regularly, usually every 3 months, and a vocational driver has a valid Driver CPC card. A traffic commissioner can ask for a copy of the vehicle maintenance records. The 15-month duty includes producing them, not only storing them.

How to prepare is in a DVSA operator compliance visit. The wider public overview is on HGV compliance.

How quickly could you produce the file?

Pick one vehicle that worked last week and one driver who drove it. For the vehicle, open the walkaround for each day it was in service, any defect with the assessment and the repair, the last safety inspection set against the interval on the licence, and the brake report that belongs with that inspection. For the driver, open the latest card download, the analysis, any infringement with the acknowledgement, and the last licence-check result.

If any of those still live in a cab, a workshop message, or a camera roll, the file is not one file yet.

• Vehicle: walkarounds for the days worked, defects closed with a repair, inspection date against the declared interval, brake report on the same file.
• Driver: card download inside 28 days, vehicle unit inside 90 days, hours analysis still held, working-time record still held for two years, last licence check you can open.
• Sold or off-hired vehicles: the 15-month maintenance history is still yours to produce.

Where records usually go missing

The failures are ordinary. A paper defect sheet stays in the cab. The workshop hears about the fault in a message that is not written onto the vehicle. A photograph of the repair never meets the defect it is supposed to close. A nil-defect sheet is thrown away after a week, and a defect sheet is thrown away after three months because the two periods were swapped.

On the driver side, a tachograph file is deleted at 12 months while working time was never written down separately. A licence check happens and nobody records the result. An agency driver covers a week with none of the records you hold for your own drivers. A download is late because the card was in a wallet and the vehicle unit was “due next month”.

None of those is fixed by buying a longer archive. They are fixed by putting the event on the vehicle or the driver it belongs to, on the day it happens, in a place more than one person can open.

What an audit trail actually is

The roadworthiness guide expects an electronic maintenance system to show a clear end-to-end audit trail: what was checked, by whom, with a date and time, and with records that cannot quietly be rewritten later. For a defect, that trail is the check, the defect, the assessment, the repair and the return to service, on the same vehicle. A job card in one system and a walkaround in another, with no link between them, is two halves.

For drivers’ hours, the trail is the download, the analysis, the driver’s explanation and what you did about a repeat, on the same driver, held for the 12-month period. Working time sits beside that, for two years, and includes work that is not driving. A screen that says the fleet is compliant, without those documents behind it, is not the trail the guide describes.

What FleetPro stores, and on which package

FleetPro Checks, and the same walkaround inside Core, Compliance and Complete, stores the daily check on the vehicle: the items, photos on failed items, a nil-defect declaration, a signature, and the defect raised from a failed item. That is the walkaround record. It is not the safety-inspection file, and it is not a general store for every document in this table.

General document storage, inspection-sheet uploads and the compliance hub are on Compliance and Complete. They are not on Core, and they are not on Checks. Operator licence fields, driver expiry dates and PMI dates are on the fleet packages, from Core upwards. Driving-licence checks are a separate module: included on Complete, and available alongside Core and Compliance. Tachograph analysis is included on Complete, and is a separate module alongside Core and Compliance. Workshop, which holds the repair job, brake-test evidence and digital inspection sheets for a maintenance provider, is its own package. It is not included in Core, Compliance or Complete.

A short checklist before you file anything

Questions transport managers ask

How long are defect sheets kept?

At least 15 months, with the assessment, the rectification and the repairer, including electronic records. That is a legal requirement in the Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness. The operator licensing guide states the same 15-month minimum for vehicle maintenance records, and says you must produce a copy if a traffic commissioner asks.

Are nil defects kept for the same period?

No. The roadworthiness guide recommends keeping nil-defect reports for at least 3 months, as evidence the check was done. That is official guidance. It is not the 15-month defect duty. Using one number for both sheets is how defect evidence gets thrown away too early, or how nil sheets are stored as if they were repairs.

Do digital copies count?

Yes, if the record has a reliable date and time, can be found by vehicle and date, and can be produced for examination. For defects, the electronic record and the repair must be available for 15 months. A scan of a paper sheet is acceptable. A photograph on its own is not the assessment or the repair.

Is every record kept for 15 months?

No. Fifteen months is the maintenance, defect, inspection and brake-file minimum. Drivers’ hours records, including the downloads and the analysis, are kept for at least 12 months. Working-time records are kept for at least two years. Nil-defect reports are a three-month recommendation. Licence checks, CPC cards, tachograph cards, MOT certificates, training notes, agency-driver files and company policies are not given their own month count in these guides. VOR evidence follows the defect file. Infringement letters follow the drivers’ hours file.

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