EARNED RECOGNITION

Everything You Need To Know

The DVSA Earned Recognition (ER) scheme is a voluntary scheme for all operators of lorries, buses and coaches who can demonstrate a strong track record of compliance and adherence to standards. Operators must be able to show they have robust systems and processes that promote effective and proactive transport management. Once successfully accepted into the scheme, these operators will enjoy the benefit of a reduced burden of enforcement.

Operators who successfully achieve ER status will possess a proven culture of compliance. By allowing DVSA to remotely monitor their compliance systems, checks can be carried out which will provide the assurance and confidence that the operator is effectively managing the transport operation and functioning in a compliant manner.

In exchange, these operators may benefit from a reduced number of inconvenient and costly roadside checks and visits from enforcement officers thereby reducing the administrative burden of regulation on those who achieve high levels of compliance.

The scheme ensures that compliant operators with ER status obtain best business value from the enforcement regime and creates a model that will drive up compliance and enable others to aspire to. It also enables DVSA to divert its resources to target the serious and serially non-compliant where the risks to road safety are highest.

Benefits for the Operator

• Be an exemplary operator, and be able to prove this when you bid for contracts

• Be less likely to have your vehicles stopped at the roadside for inspections

• Be less likely to have DVSA enforcement staff visit your premises

• Be able to use the DVSA earned recognition marque on your website and other publicity materials and on signage a at your premises & sites (But not on your vehicles)

• Direct access to the DVSA earned recognition business team

• Be able to bid for certain contracts

• Efficiently saving through having digital systems in place

• Have access to exclusive best practice DVSA workshops, summits, and information services

• Have access to commercial modules such as HS2 & LPT2 (London Power Tunnel2)

• Be part of a unique compliant group, where you have a direct feed into DVSA

Other benefits

• Improved road safety due to re-investment of DVSA resources to focus activities on the non-compliant. It also provides a platform for future DVSA initiatives.

PLUS, as you’ve seen from our customer case studies, by implementing all the required digital systems for monitoring and reporting on driver and vehicle compliance activity, lots of wider business benefits will be achieved in terms of efficiencies and costs savings.

Approved driver and vehicle software

To be eligible for the ER scheme - in order to be able to report on the Key Performance Indicators required to demonstrate compliance for both maintenance and driving activities - operators are required to have a ‘DVSA-approved’ IT system. Aquarius digital solutions for both reporting on driver and vehicle data were one of the first integrated systems to be accredited by the DVSA for the ER scheme, and since 2018, the team has helped many operators work towards ER and achieve recognition.

Another company, the Aquarius team has helped achieve ER accreditation is Wickes Building Supplies Limited (“Wickes”), and Mark Wheeler, Wickes’ National Transport and Compliance Manager, said: “As a company that operates to the highest standards of compliance, there are so many benefits to gaining formal ER accreditation, and going digital has made monitoring and maintaining our compliance a much easier task. For ER; at the click of a button, we are able to report our figures every month to the DVSA who monitor our vehicle maintenance KPIs.”

If you’ve been inspired by our customer’s ER stories in this issue of CONNECTED, and you are an exemplary compliant operator, you can test out your ER status using our ER approved IT systems for Tachograph Analysis and Asset Maintenance. Contact us for details

DVSA OPENS ‘ROAD TO DVSA EARNED RECOGNITION’ PROGRAMME TO SUPPORT NEW LORRY, BUS AND COACH OPERATORS

New HGV and PSV operators can ALSO now get support and guidance to become fully compliant by joining the ‘Road to DVSA Earned Recognition’ from DVSA. The trial programme, which launched on the 14th June, is available to new operators who have been issued with a licence in the last 6 months.

Being on the programme will help them build best practice and good compliance in their business, so they can confidently apply for Road to DVSA Earned Recognition status in the future.

For existing operators, it strengthens DVSA’s commitment to ensuring there is a level playing field when operators are competing for business. By having closer ties to DVSA, operators who join the road to earned recognition programme are more likely to meet our standards and can work towards membership of the earned recognition scheme.

During the 2-year programme, DVSA will work to provide support and guidance to those who join the road to DVSA earned recognition. This will include a structured learning programme and one-to-one contact with DVSA.

“I’m excited that DVSA have launched this new programme. For me road safety and compliance are key to our industry, Earned Recognition has set a clear standard around both of these subjects and is highly regarded within our industry. To be able to expand the brand with a new programme aimed at new operators is a great development. I’m huge believer in trying to get things right, so supporting new operators with clear milestones over a two-year programme means we encourage compliance and road safety from day one. This will help operators get it right with support from DVSA, as well as ensuring a safety & compliance culture is developed within their business; rather than trying to unlearn bad habits,”

Phil Breen Earned Recognition National Account Manager

Operator applications for R2ER started on the 14th June. For further information please email r2er@dvsa.gov.uk

‘REACH FOR THE SKY’ WITH AN INDEPENDENT DESKTOP COMPLIANCE AUDIT

In the second of his articles for CONNECTED, Chris Cuffe discusses the topical conversation of how Aquarius customers can benefit from an independent desktop compliance audit.

For the interests of this feature, Chris uses a fictional character called Woody to set the scene:

Unlike his cartoon namesake, Woody is no cowboy when it comes to compliance. He has been a Transport Manager for seven years and he knows the challenges involved in driver compliance and he knows the stakes are high for the company if things go wrong. Demands on Woody’s time have been increasing as the fleet has grown, and rule changes have made his ‘sheriff’ role yet more onerous and stressful.

On the face of it, Woody seems to be doing everything in his power to stay compliant – ‘pulling all the strings’ metaphorically speaking - but there is always that nagging doubt in his mind that makes him think; what would a DVSA examiner find if we were investigated? Are we really picking up every issue? Are there trends in the data I am missing? Is there a rogue driver(s)?

I am sure these questions are commonly asked in transport offices and by senior managers, and with a bit of time and investigative work the answers are all available within the Aquarius suite of products. Let’s face it though with most software, we as users are just scratching the surface and we need Google, a colleague, or the online manual (oh heavens!) to reveal those additional features.

Some of our existing customers however have decided to leave nothing to chance and have asked us to act as a set of independent eyes to look for more hidden issues in their data, and to create an audit document with findings and an action plan. These audits have not been limited to larger organisations; in fact, the largest companies will naturally have more dedicated resources to handle these processes.

I would suggest that any company where the fleet is growing rapidly, or there are multiple sites, should consider whether an audit could be of benefit. It could also prove to be an important step towards Earned Recognition if that is an aim.

In recent years the DVSA has been tightening up its requirements and in particular they want to see a strong handle on continuous data, which means the inclusion of the correct manual entries. They also want to see effective management and debriefing of infringements together with tangible evidence of walkaround checks and defect detection and management. They are also taking a keen interest in missing mileage and driving without a card.

For further information about our auditing and training services contact the Aquarius team.

Problem solving

In recent audits we have uncovered a range of issues;

• Missing driver and vehicle data for a number of reasons

• Missed walkaround checks or too short to be effective

• Missed walkaround checks when swapping vehicles

• Missing trailer checks

• Data stuck in the import queue as wrongly assigned

• Vehicle data with no associated driver and vice versa

• Vehicle over speeds due to incorrect calibration

• Driver ejecting a card then continuing to drive

• Failure to account for large amounts of missing mileage

• Failure to debrief large numbers of infringements

• Incorrect manual entries leading to unnecessary infringements

The audit report which takes 1 or 2 days depending on the scale of your organisation outlines in detail case examples and recommendations for their detection in the future. We leave no stone unturned to find ways to help the organisation. We give statistics to help to highlight the extent of any problems. We don’t hesitate to point out all the positive areas too.

In terms of the action plan, we highlight any additional training required, which once actioned will inevitably lead to greater confidence and hopefully a marked reduction of issues in the future. There is no witch hunt here and the audit is confidential - we are all on the same side looking to improve outcomes for managers and drivers.

Our audits are not exclusively limited to compliance as the Aquarius suite is extensive and some of our customers have asked us to include Asset Management; again we analyse the data looking for incomplete schedules, missing data, and ways to improve the use of the system and reporting to avoid anomalies.

Given that software is improving all the time and Aquarius is adding features almost on a monthly basis, it becomes hard for users to be fully abreast of everything. We hope that the audit process can help companies to ‘reach for the sky’ with their compliance responsibilities, or as close as possible, and get the most out of their investment in Aquarius’ software in all areas.