Guidance for Traffic Commissioners on the role and responsibilities of the Transport Manager
Posted by AndrewT on 21st Jan 2019
The Senior Traffic Commissioner issued updated guidance at the end of 2018 on the role of the transport manager and what it means to be competent and have good repute.
The guide explains how the Seni
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DVSA's Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness updated
Posted by AndrewT on 11th Dec 2018
The DVSA's guide to maintaining a roadworthy fleet has been updated and published on Gov.UK.
The guide provides a useful reference on how to keep heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) and public service vehic
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Drivers’ hours law and tachographs post Brexit
Posted by AndrewT on 19th Oct 2018
With the UK leaving the EU at the end of March 2019 now only 5 months away, many operators are asking what this means for drivers’ hours law and tachograph legislation as it applies throughout the EU.
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Traffic Commissioners Annual Report 2017-18
Posted by AndrewT on 19th Sep 2018
The annual report for 2017 to March 31st 2018 provides information on major aspects of the Traffic Commissioners’ judicial, regulatory and administrative roles. As independent regulators for the heavy
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Banned for 8 years for pretending to have a Transport Manager
Posted by AndrewT on 19th Sep 2018
The Office of the Traffic Commissioner revealed that a coach operator who failed to tell them that they didn’t have a Transport manager was banned from running vehicles.
The absence of a Transport Ma
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Paying the price for ineffective maintenance
Posted by AndrewT on 21st Aug 2018
A skip operator’s application to increase the fleet from two to six vehicles was refused and the licence revoked for poor maintenance. When the DVSA visited the operator, the examiner found no recorde
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Earned Recognition “the gold standard”
Posted by AndrewT on 15th Aug 2018
Earned Recognition was launched by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) as business as usual at the CV Show in April. Since then over 50 organisations have achieved the Earned Recognition st
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DVSA’s Annual Review and 5-year strategy
Posted by AndrewT on 15th Aug 2018
The latest Annual Review from the DVSA sets out some of the work the agency will be doing in 2018-19 and reports on highlights from 2017-18.
278,000 roadside vehicle checks carried out
£3,900,000
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Managing basic vehicle safety checks
Posted by AndrewT on 13th Jul 2018
A recent study reported in CommercialFleet revealed that almost 20% of fleets surveyed did not carry out walkaround vehicle safety checks. 63% said they did conduct a walkaround check and the results
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DVLA guidance for professional drivers
Posted by AndrewT on 13th Jul 2018
The DVLA leaflets for Large Goods Vehicles (LGV) and Passenger Carrying Vehicles (PCV) drivers provide useful guidance for new drivers and are a good reminder for more experienced drivers. They will a
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Action against vocational licences for mobile phone offences
Posted by AndrewT on 12th Jul 2018
The Office of the Traffic Commissioner has issued a reminder that professional drivers caught using a hand held mobile phone whilst driving could face action against their vocational licence on top of
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Setting the standard with DVSA's Earned Recognition
Posted by AndrewT on 14th Jun 2018
According to a recent article in Commercial Fleet the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) believes the Earned Recognition scheme could set the standard and become the benchmark for operator com
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Are tachographs coming to vans to manage drivers’ hours?
Posted by AndrewT on 10th May 2018
In an attempt to regulate drivers’ hours of smaller commercial vehicles, proposals from members of the European Parliament’s transport committee would like to see all vans have a tachograph fitted by
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What do Smartanalysis users think of the DVSA’s Earned Recognition?
Posted by AndrewT on 27th Apr 2018
Following a twelve-month pilot, the DVSA’s Earned Recognition went live on April 24th. Descartes were part of the pilot as a validated systems provider for KPIs relating to tachograph data from Smarta
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1 in 20 drivers stopped have breached drivers’ hours law
Posted by AndrewT on 20th Apr 2018
The Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) reported that more than 1 in 20 of goods vehicle and bus drivers stopped in the past 12 months had breached drivers’ hours regulations.
In 2016/17, th
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Are HGV drivers the worst offenders for not wearing a seatbelt?
Posted by AndrewT on 27th Mar 2018
According to the results of a recent police operation in Suffolk evidence suggests they are!
Police in Suffolk issued over 200 Traffic Offence Reports (TORs) after targeting drivers of heavy goods ve
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3 in 4 drivers yet to complete 35 hours CPC
Posted by AndrewT on 19th Mar 2018
According to research carried out recently by DCPC Training Contractor, Fleet Source, only 24% of drivers have completed the 35 hours CPC training required by 2019 with almost half at least 14 hours s
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On-the-spot fines for historic drivers' hours offences start on 5th March 2018.
Posted by AndrewT on 27th Feb 2018
As of Monday 5 March 2018 the DVSA will start issuing on-the-spot fines for historic drivers’ hours offences committed in the previous 28 days.
In a single roadside check, DVSA traffic examiners will
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Record number of drivers sent for retraining
Posted by AndrewT on 16th Jan 2018
In 2017 a record number of over 1.4 million drivers were sent to offender retraining courses by the police. This includes more than one million caught for speeding offences. The first year these cours
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Is it time to close volumetric drivers’ hours loophole?
Posted by AndrewT on 19th Dec 2017
The Mineral Products Association (MPA) has called for action to regulate volumetric concrete mixers - some of the largest vehicles on the roads.
Volumetric concrete mixers operate with no effective w
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Everything you wanted to know about the DVSA's Earned Recognition Pilot
Posted by AndrewT on 29th Nov 2017
The DVSA's Earned Recognition Pilot inviting road transport operators to share maintenance and tachograph data will help the authorities focus their efforts on non-compliant operators. The DVSA presen
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Compliance concerns will impact your growth plans
Posted by AndrewT on 1st Nov 2017
Cases on non-compliance can not only affect your business now but can also have a detrimental impact on your future growth plans as a recent case in Swindon highlights where a breakdown and recovery f
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What does it take to be a transport manager?
Posted by AndrewT on 13th Oct 2017
The position of transport manager is a vital one for all transport operators regardless of size.
Transport managers need to have good repute and be professionally competent. A ‘dangerously incompeten
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Importing Tachograph Fraud
Posted by Robin Layfield on 25th Sep 2017
The BBC reported on an increase in tachograph tampering in the UK roads with over 440 HGVs crossing into the UK last year with manipulated tachographs.
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA)
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Driving tired is 'worse than being on drugs'
Posted by Robin Layfield on 31st Aug 2017
According to recent research, driving in state of fatigue has contributed to more road accidents in Great Britain than those impaired by taking drugs.
The study found 20% of road accidents on major r
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Road safety operation results in big fines for drivers’ hour offences
Posted by Robin Layfield on 21st Aug 2017
A HGV driver was fined £800 after breaching his drivers’ hours’ offences detected at a road safety operation conducted with North Wales Police in August. A vehicle examiner from North Wales Police’ Fo
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DVSA Annual Review 2016/17
Posted by Robin Layfield on 18th Jul 2017
The DVSA published their first Annual Review to promote what it is most proud of from 2016/17 and highlight some of work they will be doing in 2017/18 to further improve road safety.
Road transport o
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Take part in Descartes' Fleet Management Benchmarking Survey 2017
Posted by Robin Layfield on 11th Jun 2017
Have your say on the big issues that impact your fleet operations
Fleet management is continuously evolving. With shifting customer demands, new regulatory requirements and more competitive pressure,
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Jailed for using gadget to hide drivers’ hours
Posted by AndrewT on 1st Jun 2017
Judge James Sampson reinforced the fact that 'tired drivers kill' as he jailed a HGV driver for using a gadget that allowed him to exceed legal drivers’ hours.
The driver pleaded guilty to having a d
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Tachograph download and ransomware protection
Posted by AndrewT on 24th May 2017
The recent ransomware attacks highlight the potential risk to corporate networks. The simple process of collecting and uploading digital tachograph data create touch points for files to enter networks
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