Know what the examiner would find. While there’s time to fix it.
Trouble with a goods licence usually starts at a maintenance investigation. HGVault holds the records for your lorries, trailers and vans and puts DVSA’s own questions to them every night, so the day starts with a list of what would be marked down and who is sorting it.
Drivers, fitters and the transport office all add to the same record as they work, so nobody has to sit down on a Friday and bring it up to date.
If DVSA visited today
Maintenance investigation questions, HGV
Mostly satisfactory
Sections
14
Flagged
2
Actions open
4
Ref
Question
Code
Action
4b
Records completed
U
Laden brake test, SV06
Workshop · due Wed
5a
Walkaround checks
U
Coupling ticked on a rigid, SV07
Office · due Fri
4d
Forward planning
S
Planned 26 weeks ahead
8
Wheels and tyres
S
Every re-torque signed off
OCRS roadworthiness, running score
6.2GreenDVSA’s last report 7.0
DVSA’s questions, HGV form
The examiner’s goods vehicle question set and outcome codes, laid out the way the report is.
Mistakes stay on file
A wrong entry is voided with a reason and a name against it. Nothing quietly disappears.
Edition named on every check
Each check says which DVSA document and edition it follows, and GOV.UK is watched for updates.
Read-only logins
Your transport consultant gets a login that can look and print, and can’t change a thing.
What gets goods operators marked down. Spotted early.
Nobody has to remember to look for any of this. HGVault picks it up as the records arrive, against the question numbers on the HGV form of the examiner’s report.
Maintenance investigation self-check, HGV
Checked every night
Question
What would be flagged
What HGVault does
4c 4e
A PMI done late, with nothing on file to say the lorry was off the road
Warns before the due date, and asks for a VOR record when an inspection slips because the vehicle wasn’t running.
4b
An inspection sheet with no laden brake test and no reason why
Holds the sheet at sign-off and lists what is missing: brake figures, a tyre reading, a rectification, a signature.
5a
Trailer defects nobody reported
Goes back through the walkarounds that marked the item OK and puts each one on that driver’s record.
5a
Thousands of walkarounds and almost no defects
Sets what drivers report against what the fitters find, so a habit of ticking everything OK shows up on your screen first.
8
A wheel refitted with no re-torque, or a steer tyre past ten years
Stopped on the inspection sheet before anyone can sign it.
4d
A planner that runs out after a few weeks
Checks the forward planner reaches the six months ahead that the guidance asks for.
10
A prohibition with no investigation behind it
Opens one, links the evidence already on file and shows what is still needed.
An annual test, tacho calibration or tail lift LOLER date run out
Held against each lorry and trailer with its certificates, and flagged well before the day.
More lorries or trailers in use than the licence authorises
Counts the fleet against the vehicles and trailers on your goods licence, and checks the VOL list both ways.
Question numbers follow the HGV form of DVSA’s maintenance investigation report. HGVault works from DVSA’s published guidance, including the Guide to maintaining roadworthiness. DVSA has not approved or endorsed it.
Workshop
An inspection sheet that won’t let a gap through.
When the fitter taps Sign, HGVault reads the sheet the way an examiner would. Unladen brake figures with no reason given. A steer tyre past ten years old. Twin wheels refitted on the drive axle with no re-torque booked. The same air leak that was on last month’s sheet.
It takes a few seconds at the bench. That’s a lot quicker than explaining at a maintenance investigation why nobody picked it up.
Before you sign
Safety inspection · SV06 · 26 tonne rigid · 6 week interval
5 to look at
Brake test recorded unladen
Add a laden test, or say why one couldn’t be done.
Offside steer tyre is over ten years old
DOT date 1615. Not allowed on a front steered axle.
Nearside rear twin wheels removed
No re-torque check booked yet.
Nearside rear levelling valve leaking again
It was on the last inspection too. Worth finding the cause.
Inspection is 8 days late
No VOR record covers the gap.
Back to the sheet
Walkaround check
SV03
6×2 tractor unit
Look at this first
Nearside drive axle, outer tyre
2.4 mm at the last PMI. How does it look now?
Still OK
Defect
Exterior
Lights and marker lamps
OK
Spray suppression
Defect
Nearside rear mudflap torn off. Photo added.
Wheel nut indicators
OK
Tail lift
Not fitted
Fifth wheel and coupling
To check
Drivers
Walkarounds that start with what matters on that lorry.
Before the driver gets to the usual list, HGVault shows them what it already knows. A drive tyre that was close to the limit at the last PMI. A marker lamp still waiting for a part. Something the yard supervisor found on yesterday’s gate check. Each of those needs its own answer before the check can be sent.
Trailers have their own tag and their own list, so the check on the trailer is a record in its own right. A check done suspiciously fast is flagged, and the office sees each driver’s checks, how long they take and what they’ve missed, so training goes to the drivers who need it.
Day to day, it’s just how the work gets written down.
There’s no extra compliance job on top. Everything on this page comes from records your people make anyway, on one history for each lorry, trailer and van.
Drivers
Scan the QR tag on the lorry or the trailer and do the check on their own phone. Nothing to install. No signal in the yard? It saves and sends later.
Workshop
PMIs on a tablet, item by item from DVSA’s HGV inspection manual, trailer items included. Brake figures or the printout, every tyre, the wheel torque and the re-torque. Driver defects turn up as jobs, with the parts fitted going on them. Reports from an outside garage are recorded and checked here too.
Office
One board for the fleet: VOR, inspections due, open defects, the goods licence and the actions. Add lorries from the registration, countersign inspection sheets, keep VOR records and run the quarterly self-check.
Everything in HGVault
59 features, sorted by the people who use them. Pick a team to see theirs.
On the driver’s own phone, before the first drop.
Checks for each kind of vehicle
A tractor unit, a rigid, a trailer and a van each get their own list, with a line under every item saying what to look for.
Look at this first
The check opens with what HGVault already knows about that vehicle: a worn tyre, a defect waiting on a part, a gate check find.
Defects with a photo
Every defect needs a note and can take a photo, and goes to the workshop as its own record.
Not fitted, left off
No tail lift on a tractor unit, no coupling on a rigid. Items a vehicle doesn’t have come off its check.
A minimum check time
The server times each check from the moment it opens, and one finished too fast is flagged.
No signal needed
The check saves on the phone and sends when it can, stamped with when it was really done.
Nothing to install
Point the phone camera at the QR tag and the check opens in the browser.
Licence check codes
When a licence check is due, the phone asks the driver for a GOV.UK check code and passes it to the office.
Fuel from two photos
A photo of the pump and one of the dashboard fill in the litres, price and mileage for the driver to check, where photo reading is switched on.
Shared phone, cleared
One tap clears a driver’s ID from a pool phone, so the next driver puts in their own.
On a tablet beside the lorry, over the pit or in the bay.
Inspections from the HGV manual
Items and IM numbers from DVSA’s HGV inspection manual. Trailers leave out the items the manual says don’t apply to them.
Laden brake tests
Roller tester, decelerometer or road test figures, laden or unladen, or the printout as a photo or a PDF.
Tyres at every wheel
Tread, pressure and DOT date at each position, with last time’s figures beside each box.
Pressures per axle
A recommended pressure for each axle, and a warning for any tyre found 20% or more under it.
Wheel torque, signed in stages
A wheel diagram, the torque figures and the re-torque check, each stage with its own signature.
Checked before signing
HGVault reads the sheet the way an examiner would and lists the gaps before anyone can sign.
Repeat faults
An item faulted on back-to-back inspections is flagged, so somebody looks at why it keeps failing.
Defects to jobs
Driver defects land in the workshop as jobs and stay open until they’re put right and signed off.
Parts on the job
Each part goes on the job as it’s fitted, with the supplier and a photo of the label. The cost can follow with the invoice.
Tail lifts and LOLER
Each tail lift’s thorough examinations held on the vehicle, every six months unless you set a different interval.
Equipment register
Pit jacks, vehicle lifts, the compressor and calibrated torque wrenches, each with its examinations and renewals.
Fitters’ qualifications
irtec licences, courses and certificates for each technician, with a reminder before any of them lapse.
Upload link for garages
A private link, with no login, for an outside garage to send its inspection reports and repair paperwork.
Contractor reports read
Upload a contractor’s report and key the facts in, or let AI read it for the office to check.
On one board, for the transport manager and the office.
Fleet board
What’s off the road, what’s due, open defects and open actions for every lorry, trailer and van.
Add vehicles from the registration
DVSA’s MOT history fills in each vehicle, one at a time or up to 250 at once.
Forward planner and calendar
PMIs, annual tests, tacho calibrations and tail lift examinations planned months ahead.
Office sign-off
Sheets signed off in the office, with the transport manager countersigning if you want a second name on them.
VOR records
Off road dates and reasons, so a missed PMI comes with its explanation attached.
Goods licence and discs
Lorries and trailers against what the licence authorises, a disc register, and the VOL list compared both ways.
Gross weight and C1
A gross weight on each lorry and van, so a driver with only C1 shows up against anything over 7,500 kg.
Driver records
Categories, Driver CPC hours, tacho card and D4 dates for every driver, with anyone who can’t drive shown in red.
Suppliers and invoices
A supplier list that fills itself in, with each invoice tied to the parts it covers.
Stock and the stocktake
Parts on the shelf, counted on the phone and valued for the year end.
Fuel card statements
Every line on the statement matched to the driver’s fill and the pump photo.
Whole-life cost
What each vehicle has cost, per 1,000 miles as the miles build, and the point it passes your line.
Booking system link
Bookings from your own booking system checked against the workshop, the dates and the driver, with profit by vehicle.
Phone alerts
Defects, lorries off the road and failed inspections sent to the right phones, with no app.
Switch off what you don’t use
Settings in plain sentences. Hide what the fleet doesn’t use and its records are kept.
The examiner’s questions, put to your own records.
DVSA readiness, every night
Checks on your own records run each night, worst first, each with an owner and a due date.
Maintenance investigation self-check
DVSA’s HGV question set filled in from your records, with a suggested answer and the reason for it.
OCRS score and forecast
A running roadworthiness score between DVSA’s reports, and how many clean encounters bring it down.
Roadside encounters
Entered from the PG35EC on the day, with the notices for the unit and the trailer, defect by defect.
Prohibitions and failed tests
Each PG9 and failed annual test investigated from the records you already hold.
SIPCAT figures
Your inspection records worked through the way DVSA’s safety inspection analysis tool does it.
Gate checks with planted tags
Supervisors plant tags on a lorry or trailer to see which drivers find them.
Missed defects
When a PMI finds something a walkaround passed, the driver who ticked it is recorded.
Earned recognition figures
DVSA’s five maintenance KPIs for each 4-week period, worked out from your records. HGVault isn’t part of the scheme itself.
PI preparation pack
Where you stand and the full history for the last 6, 12 or 24 months, on paper.
Kept the way an examiner will ask to see them.
Full audit trail
Who changed what, and when, on every compliance record.
Void, never delete
A mistake is voided with a reason and a name. The original stays on file.
PDFs in DVSA-style layouts
Inspection sheets, self-checks and investigations print in layouts examiners recognise.
Read-only auditor logins
Your consultant or an examiner can look and print until a date you set, and change nothing.
Roles for every job
Driver, fitter, supervisor and office logins, each seeing what that job needs.
Download everything
Export every record you hold whenever you want it.
Incident pack
A vehicle’s record up to the moment of an incident in one PDF, with supplier invoices if you want them.
Compliance links for tenders
A live page and a certificate for a customer’s tender, with your figures and no names or costs.
Monthly board report
One page for the directors, sent on its own and filed with their comments.
Two-step login
A code from an authenticator app at login, and a fleet can make it compulsory for the office.
Guides for transport managers and workshop managers
Plain write-ups of the rules examiners work to, with the GOV.UK sources linked. Worth reading whether or not you ever use HGVault.
Drivers
What DVSA expects a driver to look at before a lorry and trailer go out, and what a useful defect report says.
Read the guide
Workshop
Trailers under the HGV inspection manual, how often to inspect them and the records that prove it was done.
Read the guide
Compliance
The HGV form of DVSA’s maintenance investigation, section by section, and how to get your records ready.
Read the guide
Planning
How to set the gap between PMIs for lorries and trailers, and how to show the interval suits the work.
Read the guide
T01 · Tri-axle curtainsider
On the goods licence · 4 of 6 trailers authorised
3 to watch
Nearside curtain torn at the rear
Reported on this morning’s walkaround. Job open in the workshop.
Safety inspection due in 9 days
Every 6 weeks, from the trailer items in the HGV manual.
Third axle nearside tyre at 4 mm
Wearing faster than the other five. Watch at the next walkaround.
Open the trailer
Trailers get a history of their own.
Trailers are where paper systems tend to fray. They swap between units, sit at a customer’s yard for a week and come back with their PMI overdue. In HGVault every trailer has its own QR tag, its own walkaround list, its own inspections and annual test, and its own place in the count against your licence.
The same goes for the rest of the goods side. Inspection items come from DVSA’s HGV inspection manual, the licence is the goods vehicle operator licence, and each lorry’s gross weight decides whether a C1 driver can take it.
Running coaches as well?
HGVault is built for lorries, trailers and vans. Coach, bus and minibus fleets have a platform of their own.
PSVault is our sister platform for coach and bus operators, built on the same foundations.
Priced on how many vehicles you run.
Two trailers count as one vehicle. Billed monthly, plus VAT.
| Vehicles | Price |
|---|---|
| 1 to 10 | £175.00 in all |
| 11 to 20 | £12.50 a vehicle |
| 21 to 50 | £8.00 a vehicle |
| 51 to 100 | £6.00 a vehicle |
| 101 and over | £4.50 a vehicle |
Each band is charged at its own rate, so the price rises smoothly as the fleet grows. A fleet with no vehicles on the system yet pays the first band. Two trailers count as one vehicle.
The first 10 vehicles are £175 between them, each rate after that applies only to the vehicles in its band, and two trailers count as one vehicle. Questions about your price? Call 01594 733452 and we’ll work it out with you. Paying for a handful of separate tools at the moment? See what HGVault replaces.
Questions hauliers ask us
Something else? Call 01594 733452 or email info@thewebalchemist.co.uk.
Will HGVault keep us away from a public inquiry?
Nobody can promise that. What it does is show you what an examiner would find while there is still time to fix it, and leave a dated record that you did. That record is what a traffic commissioner wants to see.
We’ve already been called to a public inquiry. Is it too late?
No. Run the self-check against the examiner’s findings, give each one an action and an owner, and show the progress month by month. Undertakings you gave at an earlier inquiry can be tracked the same way.
Is HGVault approved by DVSA?
No. It follows DVSA’s published guidance and keeps records the way examiners ask for them, but DVSA has not approved or endorsed it.
Do trailers need their own QR tag?
Yes. Each trailer gets a tag, its own walkaround list, PMIs from the trailer items in the HGV inspection manual and its own annual test dates. Trailers are also counted against the trailers your goods licence authorises.
Do drivers need to download an app?
No. They scan the QR tag with the phone camera and the check opens in the browser. If the yard has no signal, the check is kept on the phone and sent as soon as there is one.
How does it know who can drive which lorry?
Each lorry and van has its gross weight recorded. A driver with C1 can take one up to 7,500 kg, and anything heavier needs C. A lorry with no weight on file is treated as needing C, and the driver’s page says the weight is missing. Licences are checked by GOV.UK check code, which the driver sends from their phone.
We have no workshop of our own. Is it still for us?
Yes. Record each contractor’s inspection from their report, with anything it leaves out raised as a question for them, or give the garage a private upload link so its reports come straight in. See safety inspections.
Does it do tachographs or vehicle tracking?
No. It keeps the dates that matter, the calibration on each lorry and each driver’s tacho card, but it doesn’t download or analyse tachograph data and it isn’t a tracking system. Keep your analysis service and your telematics for those.
See it on a working sample fleet.
Severn Vale Haulage is a made-up haulier with tractor units, rigids, a van and four trailers, and months of records behind them. Look round it yourself, read only, with nothing to install. A guided tour takes you through each part.