Maintaining safety is absolutely integral to good automotive fleet management. It is important for the well-being of your drivers, operational staff, and other road users. For this reason, it is crucial that fleet managers keep on top of all compliance and regulatory compliance as mandated by the relevant road safety authority in their jurisdiction. Failing to adhere to this can literally lead to a life-or-death situation. Sometimes the prospect of maintaining all this fleet compliance may seem daunting, however, with the right fleet management system in place, it doesn’t have to be.

Keep on Top of Your Vehicle Test Date

Fleet managers must ensure that all their vehicles go for their tests, be it CVRT Ireland or MOT in the UK, as and when they become due, and not after. This used to mean having to book a slot and perhaps another slot with the garage to do a pre-test service and VHC. A lot of admin before the vehicle turns a wheel! With ForWare Compliance, only one touch point is needed; you can book both service and test through one Garage. This not only streamlines the process but also reduces the risk of missing crucial test dates, thereby maintaining continuous compliance and safety.

Keep All Your Fleet Compliance Documents and Test Results Readily Accessible

Aside from preparing and attending tests themselves, automotive fleet compliance also requires fleet managers to keep all test results and related documents in a readily accessible format should they be required to produce them at short notice. Gone are the days when this would require climbing to the garage attic and digging out mounds of dusty boxes—with ForWare Compliance this is all stored on the system so you can recall test documents at the tip of your fingers. It couldn’t be more straightforward. The same goes for job cards and service history, ensuring that you have a comprehensive and easily accessible record of all fleet activities.

Don’t Forget More Specialised Areas of Vehicle Compliance

While NCTs, MOTs, and CVRTs are the more common and obvious areas of fleet compliance, some vehicles may require additional testing. For example, do you operate a fleet of vans with tail lifts? Tail lift inspections are just one example of ancillary compliance that can be tracked and maintained with ForWare Compliance. This ensures that all aspects of your fleet, including specialised equipment, are up to date and meet safety standards.

Are Those Driving Your Fleet Fully Compliant?

While much of automotive fleet compliance pertains to keeping your vehicles up to the standards set by their respective testing bodies, it is just as important to ensure those driving your vehicles are compliant. For instance, do they have the requisite certifications to drive particular vehicles? Have you a driver only passed to drive automatics? Are they certified to drive the class of vehicle in question? Failure to comply with these can have legal and safety implications not just for the individual driver, but for the fleet operator in question. Do not neglect fleet driver safety—it is as important as maintaining compliance for the vehicles themselves.

Ensure That Any Specified Post-Test Follow-Up Work is Carried Out on Your Fleet

While it’s important to get all fleet vehicles through their compliance tests and passed, it is equally important to fulfill any follow-up work identified during the test. This will require booking into your workshop and having the specified work carried out during a given time period. With ForWare Compliance, this is a simple, hassle-free process. Simply use ForWare to book the vehicle in for the required work—even if your regular workshop is booked out for weeks you can use the ForWare Workshop Network to find an alternative garage that can ensure that the work is carried out on time. And, if the vehicle requires a re-test after this work has been carried out, you can once again use the ForWare network at the click of a button. It’s streamlined, simple, and straightforward.

Maintaining compliance is vital in the world of automotive fleet management, being critical to driver safety as well as being a legal requirement. However, we hope that this article has shown that, as crucial as it is, compliance doesn’t have to be a burden; ForWare Compliance aims to make fleet compliance hassle-free and painless.

Does this sound like something your fleet could use?

Contact Alan Maher today for a free demonstration of how ForWare Compliance can make your fleet management life easier. Call him on +353 21 484 5554 or email alan@forware.io. Let ForWare take the stress out of compliance, so you can focus on what you do best—managing a safe and efficient fleet.