I’ve got a VOSA inspection on Monday, just the usual thing, I’ve been going for eight months and they want to have a look-around to make sure I’m doing everything properly. I should be OK, I’ve got a few minor tachograph infringements but just the usual thing of being caught in the aftermath of an accident and running over by a few minutes, but I can’t see anything else they would take issue with, I presume most owner-operators on here have had the same inspection so I wonder if there is anything I should look out for?
Harry Monk:
I’ve got a VOSA inspection on Monday, just the usual thing, I’ve been going for eight months and they want to have a look-around to make sure I’m doing everything properly. I should be OK, I’ve got a few minor tachograph infringements but just the usual thing of being caught in the aftermath of an accident and running over by a few minutes, but I can’t see anything else they would take issue with, I presume most owner-operators on here have had the same inspection so I wonder if there is anything I should look out for?
If you have a van, don’t go to work in it, they spent more time looking at my Marina van on the first fleet check 
the rest of the visit was just friendly advice.
They brought a couple of minor things up when they visited us, defect books, or slips, whatever you use, specifically, make sure they are available for inspection, ( my defect book was in my car as I was cleaning out the cab ) they aren’t too keen on nil defect entries, so if you have no recent defects make somethng up 
, blown bulb etc, apart from that ( in my experience ) the guy was spot on. One little gem he brought up though, was about my mot history, the guy I was using for inspection and service/repairs was presenting the units for mot and they both failed on light bulb failures. Although they were repaired at the time it was marked as a fail, which marks you down on your mot history. I don’t use that fud any more 
.
Shouldn’t be to bad if your tachos are fairly right good thing about digi is the download does all the work for you. As you say you got the odd slightly over time with valid reason I’ve never had a problem with vosa about this despite what you read here and hear most of them are almost human.
If your inspection paperwork is ok and when they do a check on the truck it’s all ok that’s it realy.
Point to remember what the other guy said. About the garage taking the truck for test and failing and going against the I license. I know someone had this and it was a Volvo main dealer done his maintenance and he didn’t know anything of it until be had a visit and was told he only had a first pass rate of 40%.
I know you use Renault main dealer and obviously be aware of this if they do your mot as if it failed that gives you as a one truck operation a 100% fail rate.
Anyway good luck anyway
They are very keen on a year planner as an OD they will expect to see one regardless of who services it, A diary with the future dates of inspections, tacho calibration etc will suffice, I would say You’ll be getting the wheel tapper around, in 25 years as a road haulier I never had them round to see My tacho’s…
I will be interested to see if its different in Your traffic area…
thats coz you was never here long enough to see em john boy!
As a 1 vehicle Owner Driver, technically, you don’t need to fill out a defect sheet/book, because, who are you reporting it to? Yourself 
I was told this by the VOSA inspector that did my yard inspection nearly 7 years ago
If, however, you get more vehicles on the road, the drivers will need to fill out the defect reporting system
If he is coming in the morning, get there early and make sure the vehicle is clean, it shows them that you are looking after it
I was in the process of washing mine when he turned up, and made a comment about it
He gave the truck a quick once over, and then checked the inspection sheets, he only had a cursory glance at the tacho that was in for that day, and he noticed that I had been sticking to the speed limits and using the mode switch correctly, never asked for any prevoius tachos
All in all, it was a friendly, helpful experience
As KR79 said, they are not ■■■ bad as a lot of peole make them out to be, the ones that have the problems with VOSA are usually the ones who like to mouth off at them
Thanks chaps, I do fill in defect sheets, even though I know I don’t have to, and I’m going to spend an hour or two tomorrow cleaning it up.
I do keep a diary/ forward planner so hopefully I’m ok there too.
No Marina van so I should be ok there too. 
I will let you know what happens.
Quite surprised you are having an inspection Harry, I was under the impression they didn’t carry out individual inspections anymore due to time/money restraints.
Instead I was invited to a new operator seminar at my local Vosa testing station. There were about 8 of us there with a tacho inspector and a vehicle inspector. They basically did a PowerPoint presentation on how to stay on the right side of the law.
It was all very informal and lasted about 5 hours including a coffee break. Didn’t have to take anything in with me (I.e inspection sheets, tachos). It said in the letter that though it wasn’t compulsory to attend, a failure to turn up would be noted on your o licence which would inevitably result in a visit.
Good luck with the inspection mate, in sure you keep everything up to scratch anyway.
Matt
I haven’t been invited to any seminar so I presume that different Traffic Areas have different policies on this. I was expecting a site visit, I’m just a bit surprised it’s taken them so long because I was expecting it after about three months, which is what I was told would happen.
Best suit on Harry, ironed and washed, and polish the shoes too, a quick sweep around the place with a brush does wonders, no chips in the tea mug and some good quality biscuits to offer, and best not to arrive in your Morris Ital with the bumper tied on with duck tape.
Do not blame me if your shed catches on fire with the tacho records in.
As a 1 vehicle Owner Driver, technically, you don’t need to fill out a defect sheet/book, because, who are you reporting it to? Yourself
A one vehicle operator who I was TM for, was told by Vosa to always fill in a defect/daily record book.
Dave the Renegade:
As a 1 vehicle Owner Driver, technically, you don’t need to fill out a defect sheet/book, because, who are you reporting it to? Yourself
A one vehicle operator who I was TM for, was told by Vosa to always fill in a defect/daily record book.
That’s what I was told as well.
Harry Monk:
I haven’t been invited to any seminar so I presume that different Traffic Areas have different policies on this. I was expecting a site visit, I’m just a bit surprised it’s taken them so long because I was expecting it after about three months, which is what I was told would happen.
it is usually any time within the first 12 months of trading
Dave the Renegade:
As a 1 vehicle Owner Driver, technically, you don’t need to fill out a defect sheet/book, because, who are you reporting it to? Yourself
A one vehicle operator who I was TM for, was told by Vosa to always fill in a defect/daily record book.
only saying what the VOSA man told me when he came to do my inspection, admittedly, it was over 6 years ago now 
I figure for the sake of the 30 seconds or so it takes to fill out a defect sheet that it’s probably best to err on the side of caution and do one anyway. I just use a sheet of A4 paper, photocopied with two defect sheets on one side and four on the other so one piece of A4 covers a week.
I’m going to be giving the truck a good clean up and hiding the ■■■■ and the magnet in case they want to look inside it and although all of their trailers are perfectly roadworthy, Gregory’s have just bought a load of brand new trailers and they’ve given me one of those for the occasion so it should all look fairly proper.
I’ve got to say that the VOSA bloke was pretty helpful and co-operative on the phone and was happy to arrange a visit for first thing on a Monday so as to cause as little downtime for me as possible, I’ll still be able to do my usual Monday run to Cornwall when they’re done.
shuttlespanker:
As a 1 vehicle Owner Driver, technically, you don’t need to fill out a defect sheet/book, because, who are you reporting it to? YourselfI was told this by the VOSA inspector that did my yard inspection nearly 7 years ago
If, however, you get more vehicles on the road, the drivers will need to fill out the defect reporting system
If he is coming in the morning, get there early and make sure the vehicle is clean, it shows them that you are looking after it
I was in the process of washing mine when he turned up, and made a comment about it
He gave the truck a quick once over, and then checked the inspection sheets, he only had a cursory glance at the tacho that was in for that day, and he noticed that I had been sticking to the speed limits and using the mode switch correctly, never asked for any prevoius tachos
All in all, it was a friendly, helpful experience
As KR79 said, they are not ■■■ bad as a lot of peole make them out to be, the ones that have the problems with VOSA are usually the ones who like to mouth off at them
Your making a note that something was/is wrong with it, I strongly disagree with this comment it does’nt matter a jot if a bulbs blown right it down & log it, its Your duty to do so as an operator regardless of how many trucks you run/drive.
Or write it down even 
I never had defect sheets in My 25 years at it, I kept a day book & I wrote down anything I did or considered needed doing in the future…I had a fair few visits off VOSA over those years, some days the truck would be filthy somedays clean, a clean truck can be a mechanical disaster, they want to see something mechanically sound & safe to operate & they will want to know have You rectified any defects at the roadside etc & if You have’nt written it down He/She will want to know why.
Yes, as I understand it a diary or a day book is fine, it doesn’t have to be a defect book, but even if it wasn’t necessary then I’d still make a note of any job I did on the truck or any defect which occurred if only because it would help to identify if there was some pattern to a certain problem.
All Vosa basically want is for a driver to keep a daily record whether its in a notebook or a defect book.