Establishment, in the eyes of the DVA, includes the main business head office address and any operating centre that is included on the operator licence.

The DVA defines an operating centre as the place where “authorised vehicles are normally kept when not in use” and the approved operating centre(s) must be “suitable for the number, type and size of vehicles operated under the licence.”  Although there is some interpretation about what the statement “when not in use” means, typically the DVA expects vehicles to be kept at the operating centre address when parked up.

In the last few months we know of a number of cases where auditors are being asked by the TRU to go out to inspect premises.  Prior to this, they would only have physically visited if an objection to an operating centre had been raised.

The DVA auditor will expect the operating centre to be a legitimate place that you operate from.  This would be evidenced by having a presence and staff located at the address.  And the auditor will check to ensure that there are sufficient physical spaces for vehicles to be parked in.

If the operating centre is a shared location with other operators, it must have individually marked out parking spaces with enough for each operators’ number of authorised vehicles. And it is important to note that a tractor unit and a trailer equates to two spaces.

One final point to note is that all compliance records must be kept at the operating centre location.  If the DVA finds that you are using a location that is not specified on your licence for any aspect of your vehicle parking or compliance recording, you could risk having your licence revoked.  Read more on this here.

Any change of operating centre must be approved prior to its usage!