HGV Daily Walk Around Check Sheet: What to Include and How to Record It
A walk around check sheet is the paper or digital record that proves a driver completed their daily vehicle inspection. At a DVSA roadside stop, an examiner can ask to see the defect report for that day. At an operator premises visit, DVSA will typically check safety inspection reports and defect records going back 15 months across your fleet. The sheet itself — whether paper or digital — is what makes the check auditable.
Most small operators use either a generic paper pad or their own handwritten sheet. Neither is inherently wrong, but both need to cover what DVSA expects, and both need to be stored reliably enough to produce on demand.
General guidance, not legal advice. This page covers Great Britain — the Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Act 1995 extends to England, Wales and Scotland. GOV.UK notes that "The rules are different if you're in Northern Ireland", where goods vehicle operator licensing is administered by the Department for Infrastructure and carries its own fees — £254 to apply and £449 for five years. DVSA provides a recommended format for walkaround checks; operators can use their own format provided it covers the required safety items and produces a verifiable record.
The Legal Basis for Daily Checks
The requirement for drivers to carry out pre-use vehicle checks comes from the undertakings on your operator's licence. When you received your O-licence you committed to keeping vehicles in a fit and serviceable condition — an undertaking you offered, not a condition imposed on you, and one a commissioner acts on under section 26(1)(f) of the Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Act 1995: "that any undertaking recorded in the licence has not been fulfilled". DVSA's interpretation of that undertaking — set out in the Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness — is that "a driver or designated responsible person must conduct a walkaround check of a vehicle prior to using the equipment on the public highway", and that "at least one walkaround check should be carried out in every 24-hour period that the vehicle is in service". Where the check finds a defect, it must be reported and rectified before the vehicle goes out again. Recording a check that found nothing is a separate matter — see below.
A clean check (no defects) should also be recorded. The Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness describes this as good practice, and recommends retaining nil-defect reports for at least 3 months. In practice, recording every check — including clean ones — makes the audit trail far more credible: a run of unbroken daily records demonstrates a system that runs every day, not one that fires up only when something goes wrong.
What a Compliant Check Sheet Must Cover
DVSA's categorisation of vehicle defects guidance and the Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness together define the safety-critical items that must be checked. A compliant daily check sheet should cover:
Tyres and wheels:
- Tyre condition (cuts, bulges, embedded objects)
- Tread depth (legal minimum 1mm across three-quarters of tyre width for commercial vehicles — many operators set a higher action threshold)
- Tyre inflation (visual; low pressure shows in tyre shape)
- Wheel nuts and fixings — missing, loose, or damaged nuts
Brakes:
- Brake performance (check by applying brakes at low speed in the yard)
- Brake pedal feel (excessive travel or sponginess)
- Hand/parking brake function
Lights and electrical:
- Headlights (main and dipped)
- Side marker lights
- Indicators (all four corners)
- Hazard lights
- Brake lights
- Reverse lights
- Rear marker boards where fitted
Steering:
- Steering response and any excessive play
- Power steering operation
Vision:
- Windscreen — cracks, chips, visibility-impairing damage
- All mirrors — condition, adjustment, security
Bodywork and load security:
- Body panels — no loose or detaching parts
- Doors, hatches, and tail lift — functioning and secure
- Load security — load properly secured and distributed
Fluids (where accessible without workshop equipment):
- Engine oil level
- Coolant level
- Screen wash
- Air pressure gauge (for air-braked vehicles)
Other:
- Horn function
- Cab condition — no obstructions affecting driver safety or visibility
- Fuel — sufficient for the day's operations
How to Structure the Sheet
A check sheet that works operationally — and holds up to scrutiny — has five elements:
1. Vehicle identification: Registration number, fleet number, or both. The check must be tied to a specific vehicle so DVSA can match the record to the vehicle's history.
2. Date and time: When the check was done. Missing dates are a common problem with paper sheets — drivers fill in a block at the end of the week and the records are useless.
3. Driver signature: The driver's name and signature confirming the check was completed. This creates personal accountability and is what distinguishes a completed check from a blank form.
4. Defects section: A clear way to record defects found — ideally with space for a description of the defect, the component location, and an indication of urgency. Generic "brake issue" is less useful than "nearside front brake: pulling left, pedal travel increased since yesterday." The more specific the defect report, the faster the workshop can act on it.
5. Operator/manager sign-off: The operator or a responsible person at the depot should sign each defect report to confirm it was received and actioned. This closes the loop — it demonstrates the system works in both directions.
Paper vs Digital
Paper check sheets have two recurring problems: they get lost, and they don't prove when they were completed (a driver filling in a week's worth of checks at once is completing compliance paperwork, not checking the vehicle).
Digital walkaround check systems solve both problems:
- Each check is timestamped automatically at the moment of completion
- Photos can be attached to defects
- The record is backed up instantly
- DVSA can see a clear audit trail with timestamps, GPS location if enabled, and driver signature
The tradeoff is cost and connectivity. Some digital apps require a data connection; drivers in poor-signal areas need an offline-capable tool. See our best walkaround check apps guide for a comparison of the available options.
For a free digital check system, our digital walkaround check template provides a web-based form that generates a timestamped record without requiring a software subscription.
Connecting Defects to Action
A check sheet is only half the system. The other half is what happens when a defect is reported:
- Driver reports defect on the check sheet at pre-use check
- Operator (or transport manager) receives the report — same day, before the vehicle is used
- Operator assesses the defect — can the vehicle run today or not?
- If not, the vehicle is taken off the road and the defect reported to the workshop
- Workshop repairs the defect and confirms completion
- Defect report is marked as resolved with date and action taken
- Vehicle returns to service
At a DVSA premises visit, an examiner will trace specific defect reports through this chain. If a defect was reported but no action was recorded, it looks like the operator ignored the driver's report. If the same defect recurs across multiple checks, it looks like the repair wasn't effective. Both findings go against your OCRS score.
Retention Requirements
The Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness requires safety inspection reports and actioned defect reports to be retained for at least 15 months. Nil-defect daily check reports carry a separate 3-month recommended retention period. In practice, retaining all daily check sheets for 15 months is the safest approach: it removes the need to distinguish actioned-defect records from nil-defect records, and provides a complete audit trail. For a 3-vehicle fleet running 5 days a week, that's approximately 1,000 check sheets per year.
Digital storage handles this easily. Paper storage is manageable but requires a disciplined filing system — many small operators use an accordion file per vehicle, but the record only survives a DVSA visit if the filing is actually done.