Are Digital Records Acceptable to DVSA?
Yes – if you do these seven things.
‘Electronic records are acceptable, provided that they contain the essential information that can be made available for examination. – DVSA Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness
What Are The Seven Must-Haves?
Driver walk-around checks, safety inspections, first-use inspections, and intermediate safety checks must be recorded manually or digitally, or a mixture of both.
If you choose to record digitally, the electronic records must:
- Be tamper-proof, so, for example, your records cannot be changed at a later date.
- Have time and date stamped entries to make sure that your system is secure and your data is reliable.
- Have secure authentication or a suitable method of digital driver signature, as it must be clear what has been checked and by whom.
- Have a clear, complete end-to-end audit trail.
- Be printable and therefore capable of producing hard copy information if requested.
- Have a data back-up and disaster recovery system for regular data back-up.
- Be accessible for sufficient delegated people for management, continuity, and enforcement purposes, for instance, in case of staff absence.
Why Do These Matter?
As the operator, it is your responsibility to ensure that any computerised system you use meets at least the minimum required standards of a manual system and the additional features specific to an electronic system.
If your electronic records do not meet DVSA requirements, it can lead to failed audits which may be investigated further.
When a vehicle examiner visited Dolphin Autos Ltd, it was noted that some inspection records were not signed off. A warning was issued to the operator, and an independent compliance audit was undertaken which found several unsatisfactory areas within maintenance systems, records, and driver defect reporting. When further investigated, it was found that preventative maintenance inspection records were incomplete, and audits were stated as being carried out but no documentary evidence could be produced. A condition was imposed, curtailing the operator’s licence by six vehicles.
Paper vs Digital
If you use an electronic vehicle maintenance system rather than a manual system, it can provide ease of access and effective management of all the required information including safety inspections, inspection reports, unplanned maintenance and maintenance scheduling, driver defect reporting, and fleet management. All of this can be found in one place, digitally, which takes up less space than paper records.
Electronic records can be retrieved quickly, and your systems can be linked to those run by maintenance providers. This can provide shared data on maintenance history, scheduled repairs, and invoicing, and give you the ability to create maintenance schedules which are both planned and dynamic.
Using a digital system allows you to create automated processes that can help to organise and manage an efficient and well-planned system. This also makes records clearer and easier to understand.
Conclusion
Autocheck puts everything you need in one easy-to-use system. We provide you with unlimited templates, including our Digital Compliance Checklist which is available to download.
We ensure your electronic records are acceptable by recording every inspection, task, and repair in a secure, tamper-proof format. Our system logs all interactions with time and date stamps, and each inspection, update, or sign-off is linked to a named user, creating a transparent record of who did what and when.
Autocheck maintains a full digital trail from the initial inspection through to defect rectification and final approval. Every stage can be viewed, exported, or audited at any time, and users can download, print, or securely email any report instantly, whether for internal use or to share with a customer or auditor. Autocheck is a UK hosted platform with 99.9% uptime and frequent backups, ensuring that everything is securely backed up, searchable, and accessible whenever you need it.
This meets DVSA standards for record-keeping and is a digital tool for compliance accepted by the DVSA.
