New roadworthiness audits launched by FTA

Two new audits have been launched today by the Freight Transport Association (FTA) that will look to revolutionise the approach to improving standards of roadworthiness within vehicle fleets.

The use of regular, unbiased auditing of systems can give peace of mind that a company is fulfilling its legal and moral responsibilities. It can be used to evaluate the performance of maintenance providers and target areas for improvement.

The Audit of Systems for Maintaining Roadworthiness (ASMR) is a central systems audit that focuses on management processes from board level down, determining if there are any gaps.  It comprehensively maps an organisation’s systems to the 100 recommendations in the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness.

The Audit of Vehicle Maintenance Records (AVMR) is a local records audit that follows the maintenance records from planning to defect rectification.  AVMR maps to 34 recommendations in the Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness where day-to-day implementation is necessary.  To reflect the size of the fleet, there are two AVMR options – large for more than five vehicles and small for up to and including five vehicles.

Sally Thornley, FTA’s Director of Standards, Audit and Accreditation, said: “These new audits will help members to approach roadworthiness compliance from the top-down. The systems audit will highlight gaps in management systems using the Plan, Do, Check, Act method, as well as looking at how the organisation would evidence its systems in the event of being involved in an incident. The records audit will help members to check that the systems they expect to be in place are being implemented operationally and by their maintenance providers.”

Operators may choose to use both audits if they want to examine systems and observe how they are implemented. If this is the case, an operator would usually decide to take an ASMR every three to five years and an AVMR every six to 12 months.

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