Fleet compliance audit checklist for UK employers.

A fleet compliance audit checks three things for every driver and every vehicle. The driver is licensed and fit to drive. The vehicle is roadworthy and insured. You hold dated records proving both. UK employers carry this duty for company vehicles and for employees driving their own cars on business. This checklist covers what to audit, how often, and what evidence to keep. It applies to company cars, vans and grey fleet.

1. Driver checks

Check the driving licence for every driver before their first business journey. Obtain the driver's consent before you search DVLA records. Record the date of consent and the version of the notice the driver agreed to.

Record for each driver:

• Licence number, categories held and expiry date.
• Endorsements and penalty points, with the date of each.
• Any disqualification or medical restriction.
• The date of the check and the next scheduled check.

Set the check frequency by risk. Check every driver at least once a year. Increase the frequency when a driver holds penalty points. For the legal position behind the check and how the DVLA record is accessed, see driver licence checking, or how licence checking works in Orbis.

If the driver holds a non-UK licence, use the DVLA share code service and record the code and date.

Ask every driver to declare eyesight standards, medical conditions affecting driving, and any pending prosecution. Repeat the declaration annually. Keep the signed declaration with the licence record.

2. Vehicle checks

Check the following for every vehicle used on company business:

• MOT status and expiry date.
• Vehicle Excise Duty status.
• Insurance cover, and that the cover includes business use.
• Service and maintenance history against the manufacturer's schedule.
• Tyre condition and tread depth.
• Recall notices outstanding.

Record the date of each check. Set a reminder before each expiry date, not on it. See fleet MOT tracking for how the expiry data is sourced at scale.

If a vehicle fails any check, remove it from business use until the failure is resolved. Record the date the vehicle returned to service.

3. Grey fleet

Grey fleet means an employee's own vehicle used for business journeys. Your duty of care is the same as for a company vehicle. Two groups fall in scope. The first is employees who take a cash allowance instead of a company car. The second is employees who occasionally drive their own car on business without an allowance. The second group is the one most often missed.

For every grey fleet driver, hold:

• A copy of the insurance certificate showing business use cover.
• The MOT certificate, where the vehicle is over three years old.
• Evidence of valid road tax.
• The licence check, as in section 1.
• A record of the vehicle the employee has declared.

Re-verify annually, and whenever the employee changes vehicle or insurer. For the underlying legal duty, see grey fleet duty of care.

Reimburse business mileage at HMRC advisory rates. Record the rate applied and the period it covers.

4. Policy and governance

Hold a written driving policy. State who it applies to, what drivers must do, and what happens if they do not. Issue it to every driver and record the date they received it.

Your policy should cover:

• Authorisation to drive on company business, and who grants it.
• Mobile phone and distraction rules.
• Alcohol and drugs.
• Fatigue and journey planning.
• What a driver must do after an incident.
• The consequences of breaching the policy.

Record every incident on a standard form. Capture the date, time, location, vehicle, driver, third parties, damage and injuries. Store incident records with the vehicle and driver files.

5. Audit frequency

Operators running vehicles in scope of drivers' hours rules carry a further cycle on top of this table, covering tachograph downloads and infringement handling. See tachograph and drivers' hours compliance and CPC training for fleets.

Running this by hand across a fleet takes a day per cycle. Start a free trial and Orbis runs the driver checks for you, or see pricing first.

6. What is changing

Three changes will affect fleet compliance over the next few years. The Association of Fleet Professionals set out the direction of travel at its May 2026 conference.

eVED. Pay-per-mile taxation for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, announced at Autumn Budget 2025 and starting in April 2028 at 3p per mile for electric cars and 1.5p for plug-in hybrids. Pay-per-mile taxation requires mileage you can evidence. Odometer readings taken from the vehicle carry more weight than self-reported or reconstructed figures. The cost detail sits in our guide to the four-year BIK cliff.

Euro 7. The emission standard extends beyond tailpipe output to battery durability. On the AFP panel's reading, fleets will need battery state-of-health data per vehicle rather than a published figure per model, which is a per-asset record most fleets do not hold today.

eHGV. Transition of heavy goods vehicles to zero emissions.

Company car Benefit-in-Kind on zero-emission cars is 4% of list price in 2026/27. It rises to 5% in 2027/28, 7% in 2028/29 and 9% in 2029/30.

How Orbis Essentials covers this

Orbis Essentials runs the driver side of this checklist automatically, at £6.95 per vehicle per month.

It performs a DVLA licence check for every driver each year, starting from the driver's recorded consent and a live call to the DVLA database. It tracks MOT and tax expiry, holds the driver declaration and consent record, and keeps a dated audit trail of every check, notification and result. Before each scheduled check it issues an approval request, either to the driver or to a nominated administrator, depending on how you configure it. The mechanics are set out in driver licence checking, and the tiers in full on pricing.

Orbis Intelligence adds risk-graded schedules, which raise check frequency automatically as penalty points increase, and driver behaviour scoring from the vehicle's own data.

Start a free trial and run Essentials against your own fleet for 30 days, with no card needed to begin. See full pricing for what each tier includes.

Frequently asked questions

How do I audit my fleet?

Work through three record sets: driver, vehicle and policy. For each driver, confirm the licence check, the declaration and the date of both. For each vehicle, confirm MOT, tax, insurance and service status. Confirm every driver has received the driving policy. Record the date of the audit and the gaps you found.

Do I need a grey fleet audit?

Yes, if any employee drives their own vehicle on business. Your duty of care is the same as for a company vehicle. Audit grey fleet drivers on the same cycle as company car drivers.

What are the regulatory obligations for fleets?

Employers must take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of employees at work, including when driving. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 and the Road Traffic Act 1988 all apply. In practice this means checking licences, verifying insurance and roadworthiness, and keeping records that evidence both.

How often should I check a driving licence?

At least once a year for every driver. Increase the frequency for drivers holding penalty points.

How do I keep driver records up to date?

Set a check date for every driver and record the next one when you complete a check. Repeat the driver declaration annually. Re-verify grey fleet documents on any change of vehicle or insurer.

Do my fleet drivers have a valid MOT?

Check MOT status per vehicle registration and record the expiry date. For grey fleet, request the certificate from the employee and re-verify annually.

Can I try it before I buy?

Yes. Orbis Essentials is free for 30 days from the day your account opens, on any fleet of any vehicle age. No card is needed to start, and the trial does not roll into a paid subscription on its own. Everything in Essentials is open during the trial except DVLA licence checks, which carry a real cost per check and are billed from day one at an introductory £2.95 per check, so a card is only required if you want to run checks before you buy. When you convert, the annual check for every driver is included.

What does fleet compliance software cost?

Orbis Essentials costs £6.95 per vehicle per month and includes the annual DVLA licence check for every driver. Orbis Intelligence costs £18 per vehicle per month and adds risk-graded check schedules and driver behaviour scoring. Orbis Enterprise costs £25 per vehicle per month. There is no quote step and no setup fee.

What records must I keep?

Keep the licence check result and date, the driver's consent record, the driver declaration, insurance and MOT evidence, the policy acknowledgement, and any incident report. State a retention period and apply it.

Last verified: 14 August 2026. Legislation and tax rates are for the 2026/27 UK tax year. Sources: gov.uk, Association of Fleet Professionals.