HGV compliance, testing and operator licences

An operator licence is the permission every heavy goods operation depends on. The fees are modest: £257 to apply and £401 to issue, then £401 every five years to continue. The bigger test is financial standing: a standard licence needs proof of £8,000 available for the first vehicle and £4,500 for each one after, so growth is a financing question as well as an operational one.

Every lorry and trailer needs an annual test. Most operators use an authorised testing facility, which charges DVSA's test fee plus a service charge. Since 6 July 2026 that service charge has been capped at £70 for a lorry and £50 for a trailer, the first rise since 2010.

Tachographs are where licences are most often put at risk. Traffic commissioners treat unmanaged or falsified drivers' hours records as a failure of the operator, not only the driver, and recent cases have ended with vehicle authorisations cut and a director disqualified. The equipment rules move too: DVSA's special notice 01-26 updated how approved tachograph centres fit smart tachograph 2 and upgrade the software.

This hub collects our reporting on operator licensing, HGV testing, tachographs and driver licence checks, with the fees tracked in THRIVE Data.