The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), formally known as the Vehicle Operators Services Agency (VOSA), are responsible for carrying out tests and roadside checks on vehicles and drivers to ensure they are safe to continue on the roads.
The DVSA examiners can:
- Inspect vehicles
- Stop vehicles on a public highway
- In certain circumstances, enter a vehicle or premises
- Prohibit the use of vehicles
- Inspect operating centres
- Where the driver has infringed the drivers’ hours regulations and tachograph, the DVSA can prohibit further movement of the vehicle
- Investigate the record keeping and service and maintenance systems of an operator
- Order the production of documents and records
- Investigate any potential breaches of regulations
- Begin and appear in proceedings at Magistrates Court
If you have received a fixed penalty notice, a prohibition notice or are being prosecuted by the DVSA, it is vital that you seek legal advice from Farleys’ transport law department at the earliest opportunity.
Our aim is to keep your drivers on the road!
If the DVSA have issued enforcement action for any of the following, get in touch with our transport law team:
- Dangerous driving
- Defective vehicles
- Drink driving or driving under the influence of drugs
- Driving whilst disqualified
- Driving without a license/insurance
- Using a mobile phone while driving
- Speeding
- Totting up
- Exceeding allowed hours of driving and insufficient rest
- Unfit vehicle / road worthiness offences
- Forgery and misuse of documents
Enforcement action will often affect your Operators Compliance Risk Score (OCRS). Your ideal OCRS score is green. If your OCRS score is amber, this could lead to a call-in to Public Inquiry and if your OCRS score is red, this will always lead to a call-in to Public Inquiry.
Advice on your OCRS Score
This is how your OCRS score is calculated.
The DVSA examiners take your traffic enforcement score and your roadworthiness score and add them together to make your OCRS.
Your traffic enforcement score is made up of roadside inspections and any prosecutions you have received. It also contains two sub-categories which are ‘driver’s hours’ and ‘other traffic details’. ‘Driver’s hours’ relates to any matters such as insufficient rest or anything noted from the tachograph while ‘other traffic details’ will include any offences relating to the weight of the inspected vehicle. The roadworthiness score is based on the condition of your vehicles.
