Maintaining your vehicles

You need to keep your vehicle and trailers in a roadworthy condition all the time and not just when you are preparing for an annual test.

Key steps to maintaining your vehicles

If you follow these few simple steps, your goods vehicle, trailer and bus will always be reliable and roadworthy:

Give someone in your organisation overall responsibility for
making sure your vehicles are roadworthy
Make sure your drivers always carry out daily walk-around
checks
Fix defects in your yard before vehicles go on the road
Put in place an effective maintenance programme
Monitor all vehicle maintenance, defects and repairs
Make sure you have the facilities and expertise to maintain and
repair your vehicles
Make sure all staff involved with the roadworthiness of vehicles
are trained in their duties and know their responsibilities

If you are an operator you must know your legal obiligations and fulfil them. This includes making sure your vehicles and trailers are always roadworthy and safe.

Please read the Road Safety Authority's guide to keeping your commercial vehicle roadworthy(PDF).

Watch the Road Safety Authority's HGV checks video.

Commercial Vehicle Roadworthiness Reform

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) is currently engaged in the implementation of a wide-ranging Commercial Vehicle Roadworthiness (CVR) reform programme. This reform programme will see the transfer of functions in relation to the roadworthiness testing of commercial vehicles pass from Local Authorities to the RSA.

The CVR reform program will also reform the way Commercial Vehicle Roadworthiness (CRV) testing centres and authorised testers are licensed and provide greater powers of enforcement to the RSA through targeted roadside inspections and inspections of commercial vehicle operators’ premises. Find out more about the CVR reform programme