Guides · Compliance

How long do you need to keep fleet compliance records?

By the Qinetic team · Updated July 2026

Every operator knows records matter. Far fewer could say, on the spot, how long each type has to be kept — and the honest answer is that "keeping" a record only counts if you can find it when DVSA, an insurer, or a tribunal asks. Here are the periods that matter, and the filing habit that makes them painless.

Maintenance, inspections, and walkaround checks: 15 months

For O-licence fleets, DVSA's Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness expects safety inspection records, defect reports, and repair records to be kept for at least 15 months. That includes driver walkaround check records and the rectification trail — not just that a defect was reported, but what was done about it and when. Even outside O-licence scope, the same records are your defence if a vehicle is involved in an incident: they show the vehicle was checked and maintained.

Tachograph and drivers' hours: 12 months, working time longer

Tachograph records for in-scope vehicles must be kept for at least 12 months. Records supporting working-time compliance are generally kept around two years. If you run vans only, drivers' hours rules may not bite — but if you mix HGV and van work, keep the HGV standard across the board rather than maintaining two regimes.

Licence checks, driver files, and insurance

There's no single statutory period for DVLA licence-check records — the working rule is to keep the evidence of every check for as long as the driver works for you, plus a margin. Driver files (contracts, right-to-work, training) should outlast the engagement: contract claims can be brought up to six years later, so many operators keep files for six years after a driver leaves. Insurance documents are worth keeping long-term — historic claims can surface years after the policy period.

Incident evidence: think in years, not months

Personal-injury claims can generally be brought up to three years from the incident (longer in some cases), and damage-only claims up to six. The photos, notes, and walkaround records from the day of an incident are worth far more than any statement written months later — capture them at the time, attach them to the driver and vehicle, and keep them for the long haul.

The real problem isn't retention — it's retrieval

Most operators technically have these records somewhere: a filing cabinet, an inbox, a photos folder, three spreadsheets. The failure is retrieval under pressure — a DVSA visit, an insurer's request, a tribunal deadline. The habit that fixes it is filing at the point of capture: the walkaround check, the defect photo, the licence check, and the incident evidence each land against the right driver and vehicle the moment they happen.

That's the model behind Qinetic (qinetic.io), the WhatsApp AI fleet management platform: drivers send checks, defects, and photos from their phone, AI files each one against the right record with a date and an owner, and the vault stays searchable — so a 15-month-old walkaround record takes seconds to produce, not a weekend.

Quick reference

This guide is general information for UK fleet operators, not legal advice. Retention duties vary by operation — O-licence holders should follow their undertakings and traffic commissioner guidance.