Every operator licence for vehicles kept at Ashby-de-la-Zouch comes with a promise: the vehicles will be inspected at set intervals and the records will show it. When that slips, it surfaces in places that are hard to put right, from annual test failures to roadside prohibitions and an OCRS score drifting the wrong way. A pattern of it can bring the licence itself into question. A thorough safety inspection is the least painful way to keep all of that at bay.
Inside a PMI
We inspect against the standards DVSA publishes, including its Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness and the HGV inspection manual. That means working through the vehicle from the cab to the coupling: brake performance assessed every time along with the air system, steering and suspension, tyres, wheels and wheel fixings, lamps and electrics, the chassis, body and load security, mirrors, seat belts and the driver's view, emissions and anything leaking. Each defect is written down, repaired and checked again before sign-off. The record that goes into your maintenance file describes the vehicle as it leaves our workshop at Melbourne, not as it came in.
Ready for the annual test
A failed annual test means a retest, a lost day and a mark on your record. Preparation is simply looking at the vehicle the way the tester will, clearing the common failure items first, and sending it to the test expecting to pass. If a vehicle has already failed, bring the failure sheet. We work through each item for the retest and tell you plainly whether a recent inspection should have caught it, because if it should, the system needs tightening rather than the vehicle just needing parts.
Inspection dates have a habit of landing in the busiest week of the month. We plan them to the intervals on your licence and, where a service is due around the same time, combine the two so the vehicle comes off the road once. The workshop takes booked work from 07:30 to 17:00, Monday to Friday, and if your inspection calendar lives in someone's head at the moment, we will help you put it on paper.
Between inspections, your drivers' walkaround checks do the watching. If the same defect keeps appearing on one vehicle's sheets, or a truck pounding the A42 between the M42 and the M1 every day keeps showing wear between visits, its interval may be too long, and we will raise that with you rather than quietly fixing the same symptom again.
Ring 01332 916028 with the vehicle, its registration and when its inspection or test falls due.
