Preparing for a DVSA visit or O-licence check

A visit from DVSA, or a review of your operator licence, tends to provoke more anxiety than it should. The truth is that an audit is largely a test of whether your everyday systems are in order — and a fleet that runs its compliance well day to day has very little to fear. The trick is to be audit-ready continuously, so a visit is a formality rather than a fire drill.

What triggers a visit

DVSA visits and interventions can come about for several reasons — as part of routine assurance, because of your operating compliance risk score (which is influenced by roadside stops, prohibitions and test history), following a specific incident or complaint, or as a condition attached to your licence. You may also be called before a Traffic Commissioner at a public inquiry. The depth varies, but in every case your records are central to the conversation.

The records to have ready

Whatever the trigger, the documents an auditor will typically want to see are consistent. Have these to hand, organised by vehicle and date:

• Daily walkaround check records, including nil-defect confirmations, for every vehicle and every day in use.
• Driver defect reports and the matching rectification records showing how each was resolved.
• Safety inspection (PMI) sheets at your stated interval, with brake test evidence where applicable.
• Your maintenance planner or schedule, showing PMIs are planned ahead and being met.
• Records of repairs, tyres and any third-party maintenance work.
• Driver records relevant to compliance — licences, and where applicable tachograph and drivers' hours data.
• Evidence that defects and recalls are acted on, and that vehicles with safety-critical faults are taken off the road.

What auditors are really looking for

Beyond the existence of the paperwork, an auditor is assessing whether your maintenance system actually functions. They are looking for:

• Completeness — no missing walkarounds for days a vehicle was used, and no gaps in the PMI sequence.
• Timeliness — inspections happening on schedule, not bunched up or backdated.
• Join-up — defects reported by drivers tracing through to repairs and sign-off.
• Honesty — records that look contemporaneous and genuine, not filled in retrospectively to look tidy.
• Action — evidence that problems lead to outcomes, especially that safety-critical defects ground the vehicle.

A common failing is not the absence of records but their inconsistency: walkarounds that stop for a fortnight, PMI intervals that quietly slip, or defects with no recorded fix. These patterns suggest a system that works in theory but not in practice — and that is what loses the operator the auditor's confidence.

Staying audit-ready all year

The operators who sail through audits don't prepare for them — they are simply always ready. A few habits make the difference:

• Run a regular internal check of your own records, as if you were the auditor, and fix gaps before someone else finds them.
• Keep the maintenance planner live and forward-looking, so no PMI is a surprise.
• Make walkarounds frictionless so drivers complete them every day without fail.
• Review defect history per vehicle to spot recurring problems early.
• Store everything so it is retrievable by vehicle and date in moments, not hours.

When records are captured digitally and stored centrally, much of this becomes automatic. Missing walkarounds are visible at a glance, the planner is always current, and producing a full history for any vehicle is a search rather than an archaeology project. The aim is simple: when DVSA asks to see your records, the honest answer is 'here they are' — not 'give me a week'.