HGV AND PSV MAINTENANCE AND OPERATION

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) carry out maintenance investigations of vehicle operator licence holders in England, Wales and Scotland in order to check if the operator has suitable systems, facilities and arrangements in place to maintain their vehicles.

Following an investigation the operator will receive a report which says whether their systems and facilities are satisfactory, mostly satisfactory or unsatisfactory with guidance on what action they need to take to address any issues identified. In the most serious cases the DVSA can also send the report to the Traffic Commissioners Office.

DVSA staff used assessment guides to help them complete their reports during their site visit. The DVSA recently updated these guides, among other changes the separate guides for PSV and HGV operators are now merged into a single guide and the following are now identified as reasons to report to traffic commissioners:

• clear evidence that walkaround checks are not carried out
• clear evidence of vehicles being used with reported safety defects
• clear evidence there are no maintenance facilities or arrangements in place
• clear evidence of poor maintenance standards resulting in safety-critical defects
• clear evidence of no management control
• clear evidence of deliberate modification or removal of manufacturers emission plate values
• clear evidence of no effective system in place leading to a wheel off incident
• clear evidence of the manufacturers date code being deliberately modified or removed
• there is no evidence of a genuine link between the transport manager and the operation

In order to help operators understand what is required, this guidance is publicly available and can be found on the GOV>UK website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/maintenance-investigation-visit-report-mivr-guidance

The DVSA has also recently published updated HGV and PSV MOT inspection manuals. These manuals are intended to explain to everyone engaged in the practical work of vehicle examination and maintenance the application of specific relevant requirements, the procedures and standards to be used, the deficiencies and deficiency categorisation.

These can be found at:

HGV – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hgv-inspection-manual

PSV – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/psv-inspection-manual

Our specialists can help you with managing driving for work and fleet safety risks, please speak to your normal PIB Risk management contact or get in touch using [email protected]  if you have any questions