Earned Recognition

Transport Accreditations UK are able provide a full assistance package along with software partners recommendations to help you gain the industry recognised Earned Recognition accreditation. We can help implement processes and procedures, check and pre audit current systems and give expert help and advice on everything needed to gain this accreditation. We are so confident that we can assist you passing we will provide you a fixed fee ensuring you a pass.

Unlike FORS the Earned Recognition accreditation is endorsed and recommended by both the DVSA and the Traffic Commissioners of Great Britain (also comes at NO membership fee unlike FORS). Major contracts such as High Speed 2 (HS2) are now requiring such an accreditation and more will follow.

What is DVSA earned recognition ?

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) earned recognition scheme is a new way to prove you meet driver and vehicle standards.

This means that you’re:

• continuously monitoring your own compliance
• using DVSA-validated IT systems
• compliant with vehicle and road safety standards

It’s a voluntary scheme that’s designed to work for operators of all sizes.

How it works

You need to have a DVSA-validated IT system for vehicle maintenance and drivers’ hours. This will monitor whether you’re meeting a set of key performance indicators (KPIs).

Every 4 weeks, your system will tell DVSA if you’ve missed any of the KPIs by a set amount. If this happens, DVSA will work with you to fix any problems.

DVSA will not have direct access to any of your data or systems.

What are the benefits

As a DVSA earned recognition operator you’ll:

• Free to join scheme with no membership fee.
• Government recognition as an Exemplary Operator gives an advantage when bidding for contracts.
• Operators are less likely to be stopped at the roadside.
• Being a DVSA accredited operator, use of the Earned Recognition marque, including at their premises and published on GOV.UK give public confidence that vehicles being used are of the highest safety standard.
• Efficiency savings by using a digital monitoring system.
• Dedicated contacts in the DVSA Earned Recognition team including an exclusive newsletter with legislative changes prior to release to wider industry.
• Exclusive workshops for ER members, including best practice and an open forum for Q&A.
• Additional commercial modules such as HS2
• 12-month exemptions for both vehicle and trailer MOTs (during COVID-19).

Eligibility

Before you apply you need to make sure that you meet the following criteria:

• you’ve had a heavy goods vehicle (HGV) operator licence for at least 2 years
• the Traffic Commissioner hasn’t taken any regulatory action (other than a formal warning) on any of your operator licences in the last 2 years
• you have digital management systems for vehicle maintenance and drivers’ hours, which can track the KPIs and automatically report if they’re missed
• you meet the earned recognition audit standards

If you have multiple operator licences

The application can only be made for the whole business – not individual licences. You must report the data for all your operator licences.

If your organisation contains multiple legal entities operating under one group – using the same management systems – you can make a single group application.

The audit standards and key performance indicators would apply and be measured over the group as a whole.

An individual legal entity cannot be removed from the group accreditation unless it changes ownership or no longer exists.

How much it costs

There’s no application fee to join the scheme.

Audits

Your systems and processes must be audited by a DVSA-authorised audit provider:

• once your application has been reviewed
• every 2 years after you’ve joined the scheme

Audit fees are subject to size of operation, location and availibity. Please contact us today for a no obligation quotation.