Trailer maintenance records and inspections. Every trailer kept on file in its own right.

Trailers are where fleet records go missing. They have no engine, nobody calls one their own, and they can sit at a customer’s dock for a fortnight. The units get serviced because drivers complain about them. The tri-axle box trailer by the back fence gets inspected when someone remembers. Then an examiner asks for its last three sheets and somebody has to ring the yard.

Known by its trailer number

A trailer has no registration of its own, so HGVault knows it by its trailer number, the identification number DVSA allocates (for a new-build goods trailer it is applied for on DVSA’s form TES 2). DVSA’s Guide to maintaining roadworthiness expects an inspection record to identify the vehicle by its registration or trailer number, and that is the number on every sheet, PDF and report.

Each trailer has a type that sets its inspection sheet, an axle layout drawn for its wheels, and a hubodometer where one is fitted, so a reading is only asked for when there is something to read. There is no engine, fuel tank or driver to record, and a trailer’s safety inspection does not ask whether the engine oil was changed.

Its own tag and walkaround

Every trailer gets its own QR tag. The driver who couples up scans it and works through the trailer’s list: the coupling with a tug test, the air lines and electrical connections, the trailer brakes and park brake, landing legs raised and the handle stowed, the number plate matching the unit, then the body. The check, any defect and the job it opens all go on the trailer, whichever unit was pulling it. More on walkaround checks.

Inspected to the trailer items

DVSA’s HGV inspection manual covers lorries and trailers, and a trailer’s sheet leaves out the items the manual does not apply to trailers, such as the cab, the steering wheel and the secondary brake performance. What stays includes the items written for trailers:

• IM 11 vehicle to trailer coupling
• IM 12 trailer parking, emergency brake and air line connections
• IM 13 trailer landing legs

along with road wheels and hubs, tyres, sideguards and rear under-run devices, the body and its security, lamps, markers and reflectors, the chassis, suspension, axles and wheel bearings, the brake systems, and service and parking brake performance. Kit a trailer does not have, such as a spare wheel carrier, can be remembered as not fitted. A trailer reaching 12 years old falls into the guide’s 6-week band, and its interval is kept with it like any lorry’s. Our guide to trailer safety inspections goes through the items in detail.

Laden brake tests

The guide expects at least four laden brake tests a year where there is no EBPMS, and a trailer with EBPMS needs a laden test only when there is not enough data to show the brakes are working correctly. It also says a decelerometer cannot be used for a trailer’s brakes. A trailer’s brake test goes on its own record with the measured weight, the efficiencies and the roller brake tester printout.

Trailers that belong to someone else

Where third-party trailers are not on the same inspection frequency as your own, the guide’s default is that the interval should not exceed 13 weeks. A trailer inspected by a rental company or a customer’s workshop can be recorded from their report, with the report attached, and the guidance lets an examiner include third-party trailers in the fleet check.

Tyres on trailers

Trailer tyres go on the register wheel by wheel like any other: make, size such as 385/65 R22.5, load index, speed symbol, pattern, DOT date, tread and pressure, then every move, puncture and removal. Tread under 1 mm, the minimum DVSA’s tyre defects guide sets for vehicles over 3,500 kg, shows red, and your own warning level, 3 mm unless you change it, shows amber. The GOV.UK ten-year tyre rule is written for the front steered axles of heavy motor vehicles, and its page does not mention trailers. Ages are recorded for every trailer tyre all the same, which is what the guide asks of the whole fleet’s tyres. More on tyres and wheel security.

Annual tests

GOV.UK’s page on annual tests for HGVs and trailers lists the trailers that need an annual test: semi-trailers, A-frame trailers and converter dollies made on or after 1 January 1979, and trailers over 1,020 kg unladen with powered braking. A trailer must usually be tested one year after it was first sold or supplied. Each trailer keeps its test due date, the booking and the result with its certificate, on the calendar beside the lorries. DVSA’s MOT history lookup goes by registration, so a trailer’s results are typed in by the office.

On the goods vehicle operator licence

A goods licence authorises a maximum number of vehicles and, where it applies, trailers, and GOV.UK’s goods vehicle operator licensing guide says trailers must be authorised whether you own them or not. The Guide to maintaining roadworthiness adds that, where reasonably practicable, trailers should be specified on the Vehicle Operator Licensing service. HGVault keeps the trailers authorised with the licence and holds the trailers in the fleet against that number, off the road ones included, so you see the margin before taking on another. More on the goods vehicle operator licence.

Off the road and back

A trailer with a defect goes off the road on a workshop job, with a VOR record started where your rules say, and stays there until it is released. The guide expects a vehicle that has been out of service for some time to be inspected before it is brought back.