Servicing & Repairs
HGV Safety Inspections and O-Licence Maintenance Records
Your operator licence commits you to inspecting each vehicle at a stated interval and to keeping the records for fifteen months. We carry out those inspections to your interval and give you the completed record every time, so the file is right before anyone asks to see it.
Inspected to your interval, recorded properly
We inspect to the interval on your licence — whatever you declared, we work to it — using the DVSA inspection manual as the standard. Every visit produces a completed inspection record showing what was checked, what was found, what was done about it and who signed it off.
Those records are the part operators most often get caught out by. An inspection that happened but was never written up properly is, as far as a DVSA visit is concerned, an inspection that did not happen.
Brake testing as part of the inspection
We can run a rolling road brake test at each inspection and attach the printed figures to the record, which is what turns "brakes checked" into evidence. Driver defect reports can be picked up at the same time, so anything a driver has raised gets closed out against the record rather than drifting.
Anything the inspection finds, we can put right in the same workshop, and the annual test lane is on the same site.
Safety inspections questions
Do you inspect to the interval on my operator licence?
Yes. Tell us the interval you declared and we work to it. We can also hold the schedule and remind you when each vehicle is due, so nothing runs past its date.
How often does an HGV need a safety inspection?
Most operators run a six to twelve week inspection interval, and whichever figure you declared on your operator licence is the one that binds you — six weeks is common on high-mileage or older vehicles, twelve on lighter work. The interval has to suit the way the vehicle is actually used, not the way it was used when the licence was granted, so if your mileage or your loads have changed it is worth reviewing. Tell us your interval and we will hold you to it and book the next one before the vehicle leaves.
What happens if DVSA issues a prohibition or audits our maintenance?
A prohibition is lifted once the defect is rectified and the vehicle is re-presented, and we can do the repair and the paperwork together so the vehicle is back on the road in one visit rather than two. A DVSA maintenance audit is a different thing: it looks at your inspection records, your brake test figures and your driver defect reports over the last fifteen months. That file is the whole case, which is why we issue a completed record every visit rather than at the end of a job.
What records do I get?
A completed inspection record for every visit showing what was checked, what was found, what was rectified and who signed it off. You need to keep these for fifteen months, and they are the first thing asked for at a DVSA visit.
Is a brake test included?
We can run a rolling road brake test at each inspection and attach the printed figures to the record. It is the difference between a sheet that says the brakes were checked and one that proves what they delivered.
Can you handle driver defect reports too?
Yes. Bring them with the vehicle and we will close them out against the inspection record, so a reported defect has a documented outcome rather than just a date.
Also under servicing & repairs
Tell us what you need
Call us on 01527 870400 and we will tell you straight away whether we can help and what it costs.