Blog

If you run a restricted goods vehicle operator licence, you don't need to nominate a transport manager. That is written into the guidance, and it is one of the reasons the licence suits smaller businesses moving their own goods. It can also lead to a quiet assumption that there are fewer obligations. There aren't. The promises you made when the licence was granted are the same, and on a restricted licence there is usually nobody in a dedicated compliance role to check they ar

With the storms we've had recently, it's worth asking a simple question: if the forecast says it's going to be very windy, who decides whether your double deck trailers go out, and what are they basing it on? I've worked for an operator that had a clear rule. Above a set wind speed, no double decktrailers left the yard. It was written down, everyone knew it, and nobody had to make a judgement call under pressure on the day. Recently I asked a transport manager at another firm

Ask a group of operators how often the vehicle unit has to be downloaded and you'll hear three different answers: 28 days, 56 days and 90 days. Only one of those is the current rule for the vehicle unit, and it's worth being clear on all three, because the download record is one you'll want to be able to show. What the rules say The GOV.UK guidance on drivers' hours and tachographs for goods vehicles says operators must periodically download data from digital and smart tachog

If you've had an independent compliance audit, or you're planning one to satisfy an undertaking, it's worth knowing what the current guidance expects from it. The Traffic Commissioners' guidance on Operator Compliance Audits was updated on 14 August 2026, and it sets out what a credible independent audit has to include, and by extension, what an audit that skips these things is worth. Much of this will be familiar to anyone who has worked with the earlier audit frameworks, an

Your driver can be fully legal on hours and still exhausted: here's what to actually watch for Research commissioned by the Department for Transport found that 60% of HGV drivers regularly feel fatigued while driving, and 30% had fallen asleep at the wheel at least once in the previous year, despite being fully compliant with drivers' hours and working time rules. That's worth sitting with for a moment: this isn't a story about drivers breaking the rules. It's drivers followi

Just after 2:30am, on an unlit stretch of motorway, doing 50mph, an unlit cyclist in dark clothing appeared in the middle of a live lane directly ahead. No lights, no reflective material, moving at a normal cycling pace. The vehicle's autonomous emergency braking system did not detect them. A manual, emergency lane change was the only reason it didn't end in a collision — and it very nearly didn't happen at all, because on a motorway, at that hour, a cyclist is the last thing

Cameras in HGV cabs have become routine — forward-facing for insurance and incident evidence, driver-facing for behaviour and safety, sometimes both. What's much less routine is a proper answer to three questions every operator running them should be able to answer without hesitation: who is allowed to watch that footage, what reason do they need, and who's checking that access isn't being misused. Get this wrong and the exposure isn't hypothetical — it's a live regulatory ri

The A5 Watling Street bridge in Hinckley has been hit twice in two days this month. It's not a new problem — this stretch of railway bridge has been fought over for the best part of a decade, was once officially the most-struck bridge in Britain, and a scheme to lower the road beneath it has been delayed again. But the bridge itself isn't really the story. What's more interesting, and more useful to any operator reading this, is what's hitting it. It isn't low loaders. It isn

Most operators know, roughly, that some things have to be reported to the Traffic Commissioner. Far fewer could name the full list — and fewer still realise how ordinary some of the notifiable events actually are. An HSE improvement notice that has nothing to do with vehicles. A director stepping down from a company that's barely changed at all. Miss one, and the problem usually isn't the original event. It's that failing to notify it is treated as a breach of trust in its ow

Ask an operator what their OCRS is, and most of the time the answer is a blank look. It's one of the most consequential numbers attached to any operator licence, and it's also one of the least understood — a system that quietly decides how much attention DVSA pays to a fleet, built entirely from things most of your other posts have already covered separately: brake tests, tyre condition, nil defect reporting, driver hours. OCRS is where all of that gets totted up into a singl

Ask an operator how often they check driver licences and most will say "every three months" without much hesitation. It's become the default answer across the industry — the figure everyone quotes, including in more than a few compliance policies pinned up in transport offices. What's rarely mentioned in the same breath is the second half of the sentence: three-monthly is a baseline, not a ceiling. And the gap between "we check quarterly" and "we'd actually catch a problem in

Ask three drivers what the tyre age law says and you'll often get three different answers. Some think every tyre on the vehicle has to be under ten years old. Others think it's only a "guideline." Both are wrong, and both can land an operator with a prohibition. Here's what the rule genuinely says, how DVSA categorises the defect, and how to check a tyre's age on a walkaround in about ten seconds. What the law actually says Since 1 February 2021, it has been illegal to use ty

Here's a scenario every auditor recognises. The operator produces a year of driver defect reports. They're immaculate. Nil defect, nil defect, nil defect — every driver, every vehicle, every day, for twelve months. The transport manager presents it as evidence of a well-run fleet. It's usually the opposite. A perfect run of nil defects is one of the clearest warning signs in transport compliance, because it almost never means nothing was ever wrong. It means nobody was really

Source: DVSA, The heavy vehicle brake test: best practice guide. Licensed under OGL v3.0. Brakes are where DVSA and the Traffic Commissioners have concentrated their attention for over a decade, and for good reason. Since the 2014 Bath tipper tragedy the whole regime has tightened, and the April 2025 update to the Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness moved brake performance from "good practice" to a firm expectation at every safety inspection. If you run vehicles under an insp

It's the question that lands in every transport office the moment the temperature climbs: the cab air con has packed up, the forecast says 34°C, and the driver doesn't want to take the vehicle out. Are they within their rights, or is it a disciplinary matter waiting to happen? The honest answer is: not automatically — but in the right conditions, yes. And the grounds aren't the ones most people reach for first. This isn't a roadworthiness question. It's a health, safety and f

In the world of fleet operations and compliance, it is often the smallest components that carry the heaviest responsibilities. When managing a fleet of Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs), few details are as critical—or as deceptively simple—as the wheel nut marker. These brightly coloured, fluorescent pointers are far more than just plastic accessories. They are a primary line of defence against catastrophic mechanical failure, a key indicator of vehicle health, and a vital componen

# The Tail Lift Flag Myth — What UK Law Actually Says Ask most drivers what the legal requirement is for a tail lift flag and you'll get one of two answers: either a blank look, or a confident-sounding percentage that isn't actually in any UK legislation. The "50% reflective" figure circulates widely in the transport industry — quoted by drivers, repeated in toolbox talks, sometimes even appearing in maintenance documentation. The problem is that it comes from German law, not