The National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme (NHVAS) is an alternative compliance scheme to provide transport operators with a voluntary means of demonstrating compliance with aspects of road transport law and in return, accredited operators are subjected to less conventional enforcement.
Accreditation has evolved as a formal process for recognising operators who have good safety and other management systems in place.
It is also increasingly being used to show compliance with the chain of responsibility and duty of care requirements.
How to you become accredited with NHVAS?
To become accredited under NHVAS, operators must be able to provide documentary and auditable evidence that they are complying with the standards. Accredited operators need to:
- Develop an in-house assurance system;
- Document the procedures that staff must follow to achieve compliance;
- Produce (and keep for audit) sets of documents that prove compliance; and
- Undergo independent audits from time to time.
When an operator has developed an assurance system it must be subjected to a System Accreditation Audit.
If the result is successful, the operator is accredited, and the vehicles and drivers are identified to show this.
Subsequently, Compliance Audits are required before accreditation is renewed.