Have you noticed that DVA audits have been stepping up in recent times? At AJT Transport Consultancy we have definitely noticed more scrutiny of operators in the last 2-3 years.
We know that there are now at least three DVA staff, called the Operator Compliance Team (OCT), dedicated to carrying out audits on licensed transport operators in NI. And the operators being audited often don’t appear to have been chosen for any apparent reason. In the past, audits were typically triggered by an event such as those that had “Most Serious Infringements” (MSIs) detected (the DVA lists eight reasons that an audit might take place), but this doesn’t always seem to be the case lately.
The DVA has a mission to “improve road safety, reduce damage to the environment and assist fair competition by increasing compliance within the transport industry through a programme of education, inspection and prosecution where necessary.” The DVA is in place to “assess the systems an operator has in place to ensure compliance with the statutory under takings.” In practice, this involves auditing operators, and the findings of any audit will be reported to the Transport Regulation Unit (TRU), who will then consider what action, if any, is appropriate. The DVA states that the objective of an audit is to “measure an operator’s compliance with industry best practice” and it says it is therefore “essential that any system or procedure introduced by an operator to manage compliance with statutory under takings is properly managed and effective.”
So, what can operators do to ensure compliance? And how can they prepare for an audit?
The official guidance from the Department for infrastructure can be found here.
And, although Earned Recognition (ER) isn’t applicable in Northern Ireland, you could take some advice from the guidance issued relating to the assessment and evidence required during an audit to attain ER scheme status. This could be viewed as best practice.
But my advice is that it’s all about having documented policies, processes and procedures in place. If you have these in place and you keep records and audit trails of all of your compliance activity there’s no reason why you can’t fly through an audit. Remember that the TRU and the DVA don’t expect to see flawless records; they know the reality of operating a fleet and they understand that vehicle defects and driver’s hours infringements happen. They just want to see traceability of how you deal with these issues when they arise.
From my experience, the seven key areas that a DVA audit will focus on are as follows:
Driver Recruitment / Selection
Drivers’ First Use Checks & Defect Management
Driver’s Hours & Working Time Regulations
Click on each title above for detail on how to prepare each element for a DVA audit.
At AJT Transport Consultancy, we have many years of experience in setting up compliance management systems and assisting with DVA audits. If you need any help, either now or in the future, please get in touch.