Heavy vehicle annual test pass certificates will no longer be printed at the point of test as a default from 29 April.
Instead, vehicle owners will need to access, download and print pass certificates via the existing online testing history service. The change forms part of the latest phase of DVSA work to digitally transform the testing regime for heavy vehicles, the Agency says.
Through those efforts, heavy vehicle annual test results can already be seen in real-time online. Pass certificates to 2021 are available for download and printing, although test history on the site extends to 2018.
While the ongoing digitisation will move away from ATFs printing heavy vehicle test pass certificates as standard, those documents will still be made available in hard copy format “by exception,” DVSA Heading of Vehicle Testing Policy Gordon Thomson writes on the Agency’s Moving On blog.
Failure certificates will continue to be printed by the ATF, although DVSA is currently considering whether the same digital-first approach can be taken with those documents. It is seeking stakeholder feedback on that suggestion.
In addressing operators’ responsibilities related to test pass certificates via the O-Licencing regime, Mr Thomson notes that “in nearly all cases” a hard copy is not needed if the information is recorded digitally by DVSA or a Traffic Commissioner (TC).
The Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness and the Inspection Manual will be amended to reflect the change and TCs are aware of it, Mr Thomson adds. DVSA is “starting to see the benefit” of data collection via the wider digitisation of heavy vehicle testing, “particularly in our ability to analyse why vehicles fail test in finer detail,” he continues.
Separately, DVSA is working on making vehicle ‘ministry plates’ easier to access online and removing the need to affix them to vehicles. More information on that will be shared soon.
