A detailed review of your safety inspections, brake testing and defect reporting against the current DVSA Guide to maintaining roadworthiness, whether your maintenance is in-house or contracted out.
When you were granted your operator licence, you undertook to keep vehicles and trailers fit and serviceable, with safety inspections at the intervals you declared. The current DVSA Guide to maintaining roadworthiness sets out what an effective system looks like.
The guide expects a brake performance assessment at every safety inspection, with a laden roller brake test as the preferred method, and makes clear that fit and serviceable goes beyond MOT standards, including driver assistance systems.
We sample vehicle files and trace inspections, defects and repairs through your system, whoever does the work.
Safety inspections carried out at the intervals on your licence, with a forward planner to show it.
Complete, signed inspection sheets with defects recorded and rectified before the vehicle returns to service.
A brake assessment at every inspection, and a risk assessment where a laden roller brake test isn't possible.
Walkaround checks, nil-defect reporting and a clear route from report to repair.
Re-torque checks after wheel removal and records to show they happened.
First-time pass rates and whether failures point to gaps in preventative maintenance.
A written agreement, clear responsibilities and how you check the contractor's work.
Inspection records for trailers, hired and borrowed vehicles.
Maintenance records kept for at least 15 months and available on request.
We send a checklist before we start. For remote or hybrid audits, records can be shared securely in advance.
We agree a sample of vehicles and trailers across your operating centres.
We follow inspections, defects and repairs through each vehicle file.
On-site, we look at walkaround checks and defect reporting as they happen.
RAG-rated findings, an action log and an included debrief with your transport manager and workshop. Follow-up re-checks are optional and quoted separately.
Yes. The licence holder stays responsible for roadworthiness, even when a contractor does the work. We review how you check your contractor as well as the records they produce.
Our maintenance audits focus on your systems, records and evidence of vehicle roadworthiness. We can also carry out gate checks and fleet spot checks, observe drivers completing walkaround checks, and review how defects are identified, reported and followed through to repair. These checks support your compliance arrangements and do not replace scheduled safety inspections or mechanical examinations by a qualified vehicle inspector.
Much of it can, using scanned vehicle files. We usually recommend a short site visit to see defect reporting and records in practice.
Book a focused maintenance review, or include it in a full operator licence audit.
