Utilities
Fleet compliance software for utility fleets.
A fleet with four different rulebooks in it, spread across regions, half of it operated by contractors.
14 days free access · no card needed
Utility fleets are the broadest mixed fleets in the country. A water, power or telecoms operator may run HGVs on an operator licence, a large van fleet outside it, specialist plant, welfare units and towed equipment — each with a different inspection basis — across depots that span a region and work that does not stop at five.
Two things make the compliance harder than the vehicle count suggests. Much of the work is delivered by contractors and framework partners whose vehicles you are judged on but do not own. And standby and emergency response mean assets sit unused for weeks and then go out at two in the morning, which is the worst possible pattern for anything maintained on a calendar.
The problem
What makes utilities compliance hard
Four regimes, one fleet
Licensed goods vehicles, vans below the threshold, plant that never touches a public road, and towed equipment each carry a different inspection basis. The ones that slip are the ones with no annual test forcing the issue, because nothing external arrives to ask.
Assets that sit, then go out at 2am
Standby vehicles and emergency plant can be idle for weeks. Calendar-based servicing says they are fine; the reality is batteries, tyres, hydraulics and fluids degrade standing still, and the first use is an emergency callout where failure is most expensive.
Contractors operating in your name
Framework partners and subcontractors run vehicles on your sites and in your livery. The regulator and the public do not distinguish, and the evidence of what was checked and who drove it sits in somebody else's system, or nobody's.
Lifting and specialist equipment on its own clock
Cranes, hiabs, access platforms and winches carry thorough examination requirements under separate legislation from vehicle roadworthiness. A vehicle can be clean on its maintenance file and still carry equipment that is out of examination.
Regional depots, one obligation
Work is organised by region and depot, but the licence, the duty and the audit are organisation-wide. Compliance assembled depot by depot in different spreadsheets produces a picture nobody can see whole.
The answer
How FleetOptix helps
Four regimes, one fleet
Every vehicle, plant item and towed asset sits on one register with its own inspection basis 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 roadworthinessRegional depots, one obligation
Role-based access gives each depot its own fleet and the organisation a cross-depot view, so the whole position exists in one place rather than being assembled from regions on request.
Incidents and reportingAssets that sit, then go out at 2am
Service and inspection dates sit on the same calendar as the work and the standby rota, so an asset about to be called on is visible before it is called on.
Scheduling and planningContractors operating in your name
Checks and defects are recorded against the vehicle by whoever is operating it, including people outside your own depots, so the evidence lands in your system rather than theirs.
Walkaround checks and defectsLifting and specialist equipment on its own clock
Driver licence, entitlement and training records sit on one record per person, so the question of whether the operator of a specialist asset was qualified has an answer with a date on it.
Drivers and licensing
Free to use
Paperwork for utilities fleets
The records this sector is asked to produce, as printable forms. Free to use, whether or not you ever buy anything.
- Van daily check sheetA daily check sheet for vans and light commercial vehicles, for fleets that want the same evidence trail below the operator licensing threshold as above it.
- Tail lift LOLER checklistA checklist for operators running tail lifts, covering the thorough examination regime that applies to lifting equipment separately from vehicle maintenance.
- Inspection schedule plannerA spreadsheet for planning preventative maintenance inspections across a fleet for the year, so intervals are set deliberately and gaps are visible before they open.
- Vehicle defect report formA defect report form that records what was found, who was told, what was done about it and when the vehicle was fit to use again.
Who it is for
The people doing this job
Fleet managers
Responsible for a mixed asset base across a region, usually with the licensed vehicles being the smallest part of it.
Transport managers
Named on the licence for the goods vehicles, while answering informally for everything else.
What is transport manager?Depot and regional managers
Running one site of many, needing their own position without a view of everybody else's.
What is operating centre?Health, safety and compliance teams
Carrying the organisation-wide duty, and usually the people asked to produce evidence across contractors too.
Engineers and operatives
Taking vehicles and plant out from depots, compounds and standby, often outside office hours.
What is walkaround check?
Questions
What utilities operators ask
- Can it hold plant and towed equipment as well as vehicles?
- Yes. The register is built around assets with inspection dates, defect history and a maintenance record, which applies as readily to plant, a welfare unit or a towed generator as to a van. The inspection basis is set per asset rather than inherited from a road vehicle regime.
- Can contractors record against our fleet?
- Access is role-based, so people outside your own depots can record checks and defects against the assets they operate, which puts the evidence in your system. How you require that of a framework partner is a contractual matter rather than a software one.
- Does it handle standby and out-of-hours rotas?
- Shifts and rotas sit on the same calendar as renewal and inspection dates, so the compliance diary and the standby plan are visible together. It is not a workforce management or payroll system.
- Do we get one view across every region?
- Yes. Cross-depot reporting is one of the things it is built for — each depot sees its own, and the organisation sees the whole.
- Does it track vehicle location?
- No. FleetOptix is not a telematics or tracking platform and does not report where a vehicle is. It is the compliance record for the asset and the person operating it.
Keep reading
Features
Templates
Put the evidence somewhere it can be found
Vehicles, drivers, checks and records in one platform, built for UK utilities operators.
14 days free access · no card needed