Fleet compliance software for agricultural fleets.

The problem

What makes agricultural compliance hard

• 01

  Concessions that depend on the journey

  Whether a given movement is treated as agricultural depends on the work being done, not on the vehicle or the farm. A journey that is ordinary haulage for payment can fall outside the concession and into the licensing and drivers' hours regime, and that distinction is rarely made deliberately in a yard at harvest.

• 02

  Machinery with no test forcing the issue

  Tractors, telehandlers, loaders and trailers are maintained when they break or when there is time. Nothing external arrives to ask, so there is no record of inspection — and agricultural trailers and braking are among the things most often found wanting at the roadside.

• 03

  Seasonal and casual operators

  Harvest brings in people for weeks, often operating expensive machinery on and off the public road. Entitlement, age restrictions and training are checked informally if at all, and nothing records what was checked or by whom.

• 04

  Lifting equipment in constant use

  Telehandlers, loaders and hoists carry thorough examination requirements under separate legislation. They are among the hardest-worked assets on a farm and among the least likely to have an examination record anybody could produce.

• 05

  Nobody whose job this is

  There is rarely a transport manager, a fleet office or a compliance function. The person responsible is also farming, and the records compete with weather, stock and a harvest window.

The answer

How FleetOptix helps

• Machinery with no test forcing the issue

  Every vehicle, trailer and machine sits on one register with its own inspection dates and history, so the assets with nothing externally forcing the issue are on the same screen as the ones with an annual test.

  Maintenance and roadworthiness

• Nobody whose job this is

  Checks, defects and records sit in one system that chases what has not arrived, which is the only version of this that survives a harvest.

  Incidents and reporting

• Seasonal and casual operators

  Licence, entitlement and training records sit on a record per person, so what was checked for a seasonal operator, and when, has an answer after they have gone.

  Drivers and licensing

• Concessions that depend on the journey

  The check is completed from the yard or the field on a phone, so a vehicle going out on a journey that may not be covered by a concession at least leaves a record behind it.

  Walkaround checks and defects

• Lifting equipment in constant use

  Examination and service dates are held against the machine and sit on the same calendar as the work, so something due is visible before the week it is needed every day.

  Scheduling and planning

Who it is for

The people doing this job

• Farm managers and owners

  Carrying the whole of this alongside running the farm, usually with no transport function behind them.

• Agricultural contractors

  Working across multiple holdings for payment, which is where agricultural concessions are most likely to stop applying.

• Estate and machinery managers

  Responsible for a mixed base of machinery, trailers and road vehicles with different bases for inspection.

• Seasonal operators

  On the farm for weeks, operating machinery on and off the public road.

  What is walkaround check?

• Transport managers

  Where a holding runs lorries under an operator licence, with the same statutory responsibility as any haulier.

  What is transport manager?

Questions

What agricultural operators ask

Do farm vehicles need any of this?

Some concessions exist for genuinely agricultural work, but they are narrower than commonly assumed and turn on what the journey is for rather than who owns the vehicle. Work done for payment, or off-farm haulage, can fall into the full regime. The practical answer is that a record costs little and the absence of one is what is difficult to explain.

Can it hold tractors, trailers and machinery?

Yes. The register is built around assets with inspection dates, defect history and a maintenance record, which applies as readily to a telehandler or a trailer as to a lorry. The inspection basis is set per asset.

We take people on for harvest. Can we track what was checked?

Driver and operator records are held per person, so what was seen and when is recorded against the individual rather than remembered. That is usually the record that is missing when somebody asks about a seasonal operator months later.

Does it track lifting equipment examinations?

Examination dates are recorded against the machine, so equipment on its own clock appears alongside its service history. FleetOptix records that a thorough examination happened and when the next is due; it does not carry it out or certify the equipment, which is a competent person's job.

Does it handle drivers' hours for agricultural work?

No. FleetOptix does not analyse tachograph data or calculate drivers' hours, and whether a given agricultural journey falls inside or outside those rules is a question for your own advice rather than for software.

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