VOSA to make changes to OCRS scheme from 30 April 2012 19 April 2012

From 30 April, VOSA is introducing a series of changes, which it says will make its OCRS (Operator Compliance Risk Score) system more accurate, robust and flexible.

The first change concerns 'predictive scoring': VOSA is replacing this with a zero score – a 'grey fleet' marking, which it believes will highlight to VOSA staff the fact that there is no data with which to rate a particular operator's risk of non-compliance.

"VOSA staff will be asked to target grey fleet vehicles immediately after 'red' rated vehicles, in order to reduce the number of unknowns in the system and make sure we have useful data for most operators," explains a VOSA spokesperson. "As the grey fleet reduces, our targeting will adjust accordingly."

Second, to make the OCRS system more robust, VOSA says it will move from a rolling two-year dataset – which calculates OCRS from the end of the previous month – to a rolling three-year dataset, that will start from May 2009 and calculate OCRS from the end of the previous week.

Third, points allocation for traffic offences will be moved to the same system as for mechanical defects, graduated based on the severity of the offence. "Rather than different points for each defect or offence, a set number of points will be allocated based on the seriousness of the defect or offence," states the spokesperson.

Also, from 30 April 2012, all points will be weighted by age. As defects and offences slip into the past, their weighting will reduce and the operator's score will become greener (assuming no new offences), giving operators the chance to improve their score without having to go through a clear encounter with VOSA.

However, some events will now trigger an operator's ICRS to red, no matter what their existing baseline score. For example, a conviction will move an operator to red for a 12 month period, after which it will revert to the status that matches its baseline score. But note: some serious infringements will also result in a 'red' status for six months.

VOSA says it is also looking to move to a system where operators are rated as red, amber or green, depending on their baseline score – rather than continuing with a fixed percentage of operators in each band.

That makes a difference: it means, for example, that operators will only move between the bands as either the result of a vehicle inspection or the result of a weighting factor reduces the score.

Author
Brian Tinham

Related Companies
Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA)

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