The planned changes to the Operator Compliance Risk Score (OCRS) system by VOSA will now come into force on 1 October 2012. The original launch date of 30 April was missed due to unforeseen technical issues.

Operator Compliance Risk Score is a risk based measurement used to calculate the likelihood of an operator being non-compliant. It measures operators’ compliance in roadworthiness and traffic enforcement which includes their Drivers hour score – drivers’ hours prohibitions and prosecutions. Exceeding drivers’ hours limits and tachograph infringements regularly tops the list of most common prosecutions by VOSA.

Operators will be placed in one of four bands, GREEN, for operators considered low risk, AMBER, for operators considered medium risk and RED for operators considered high risk. An operator with no score will now fall into a GREY band.

The forthcoming changes include the removal of predictive scoring and the introduction of a straight-to-red policy for an operator’s entire fleet for serious infringements.

Guidance notes for customers can be downloaded from www.vosa.gov.uk/OCRS-guidance-notes and there is also a list of frequently asked questions available from www.vosa.gov.uk/OCRS-FAQs