Operators are being invited to take part in a pilot of the DVSA’s earned recognition scheme.
The enforcement agency said it wants companies “that can demonstrate high standards of compliance” and it needed a variety of vehicle operators, from large multi-vehicle companies to one-man bands.
The six-month trial will begin by the end of May and the DVSA anticipates 100 firms will get involved to supply robust data.
However, a DVSA spokeswoman said a spread of different sized operators was more important than numbers.
Interested companies must have held an O-licence for at least two years, and had no regulatory action by a traffic commissioner for at least two years, other than warnings.
The spokeswoman said the application process should take a couple of hours and participants will then need an audit. The DVSA would also need to ensure that companies’ IT systems could measure and report KPIs.
“The DVSA has been working with a number of trade associations and operators over the past year, to sense check the standards, and we hope that some of these will participate in the live pilot,” she added.
The FTA said it was liaising with the DVSA in order to help hauliers with the initial on-site audit. It has also joined up with fleet management platform r2c to help companies co-ordinate their systems and report processes.
"A big challenge for the industry is to pull together all the maintenance data required from disparate sources to participate in earned recognition,” said FTA deputy chief executive James Hookham.
“This could create fragmentation, multiple standards and a great deal of cost. We’ve been approached by numerous organisations to provide an independent, industry-wide solution to this data challenge, and we believe we have the expertise, insight and systems to make this happen.”
