PDF template
Roadworthiness guide summary checklist.
A summary checklist drawn from the Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness, for operators auditing their own maintenance arrangements against it.
This is a summary for self-audit, not a substitute for the guide itself, which should be read in full and in its current edition.
What is on the sheet
- Maintenance arrangements, responsibilities and who holds them
- Driver reporting and the defect loop
- Inspection records, retention and availability
- Monitoring, review and the evidence that either happens
Why this record matters
The Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness is the document a maintenance investigation is effectively conducted against, and most operators have read it once. A summary checklist turns it from reading into a self-audit that can be repeated annually and evidenced.
The gap it most often exposes is monitoring. Fleets commonly have inspections, checks and defect reports in place and nothing at all showing that anybody reviews whether the system is working — which is itself one of the things the guide expects.
Use it with
- PMI safety inspection sheetA preventative maintenance inspection sheet recording the safety-critical items checked, the measurements taken and the declaration that the vehicle is roadworthy.
- 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.
- DVSA maintenance investigation prepA preparation checklist for a DVSA maintenance investigation, covering the records to assemble, the period they should span and the gaps worth finding first.
- O-licence undertakings checklistA checklist of the undertakings given on an operator licence, with the evidence that demonstrates each one is being kept.
Read more on this
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Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. General guidance, not legal advice. Checked October 2026.