Transport for London’s (TfL) updated Direct Vision Standard (DVS) comes into effect on 28 October 2024, and this means preparing your fleet for new safety standards if you haven’t already done so. Learn about the updated regulations, how to prepare your fleet for DVS compliance, Crystal Ball’s DVS solutions, and the potential benefits of complying with DVS.
What is DVS?
Direct Vision Standard, or DVS London, was launched in 2019 and came into effect in March 2021. Mayor Sadiq Khan hopes that by reducing incidents involving vulnerable road users with heavy goods vehicles, serious injuries and deaths on London’s transport network will become a thing of the past by 2041.
The gist of the legislation is that all vehicles over 12 tonnes must obtain a safety permit when travelling into, travelling through, or operating in Greater London. The legislation aims to standardise safety equipment on heavy vehicles, especially equipment that can help solve the problem of blind spots, which are one of the greatest contributors to heavy vehicle and HGV accidents involving vulnerable road users.
In terms of DVS London, vehicles receive a star rating based on their quality of vision and will receive a permit only if driver visibility levels meet at least minimum requirements. The star rating scale is as follows:
– 0 Stars: The vehicle offers poor direct vision and blind spots, making it difficult or impossible for drivers to see vulnerable road users adequately.
– 1 Star: The driver has minimal direct vision from the cab and requires supplementary safety systems for enhanced visibility.
– 2 Stars: The vehicle offers below-average direct vision and some blind spots, which can be resolved by installing the relevant safety systems.
– 3 Stars: The driver has good direct vision from the cab without major blind spots, so the vehicle meets the minimal 2024 standards required for DVS compliance.
– 4 Stars: The vehicle offers good direct vision with minimal blind spots from the cab, which results in a high safety level.
– 5 Stars: The driver has excellent direct vision and almost no blind spots from the cab, which means maximum safety for the driver and other road users.
Until October 2024, heavy vehicles require at least a one-star rating to obtain a DVS permit. However, from 28 October 2024, vehicles will need at least a three-star rating to obtain a permit. This means you must ensure that all heavy vehicles in your fleet are fitted with the technologies required by DVS 2024.
Heavy vehicles that do not have HGV safety permits and are not compliant while operating in or travelling into or through Greater London receive a penalty charge of £550 per day. If paid within two weeks, the penalty may be reduced to £275. These amounts may be raised later this year.
How to Prepare Your Fleet for DVS Compliance in 2024
You need to ensure that the vehicles in your fleet are fitted with the technologies required by the legislation to ensure DVS compliance when the new standards come into effect in October. These technologies include:
– Camera Monitoring System (CMS): Vehicles must be fitted with a CMS on the nearside to eliminate the blind spot. The CMS can also act as an alternative to installing Class V and VI mirrors. There’s no need to install additional CMS in your vehicles if they already have them fitted under the current (2019) DVS regulations or comply with UNECE Regulations 151 and 159 safety standards.
– Audible vehicle manoeuvering warning: Your fleet’s heavy vehicles must be fitted with a system that can alert vulnerable road users audibly, especially when the vehicle turns left (or right, in the case of left-hand drive vehicles).
– Blind Spot Information System (BSIS): You also need to ensure that the heavy vehicles in your fleet are fitted with a BSIS before you apply for a DVS permit. A BSIS warns drivers about potential collisions with vulnerable road users on the nearside. Designed to prevent left-turn collisions, the system must not be activated by roadside furniture or stationary vehicles.
– Moving Off Information System (MOIS): DVS London also requires MOIS to be installed in the front of heavy vehicles. A MOIS detects the presence of cyclists, pedestrians, and other vulnerable road users in the vehicle’s front blind spot when it moves off from rest and alerts the driver to prevent collisions.
In addition to these technologies, you need to ensure that your fleet vehicles meet other requirements before submitting a DVS permit application. These include Class V and VI mirrors on the front and nearside (unless the vehicles have a CMS that replaces them), side under-run protection on both sides of the vehicle except where this isn’t practicable, and external warning signage which clearly indicates potential hazards in the vehicle’s vicinity.
How Crystal Ball Can Help
Crystal Ball’s dash cam, vehicle tracking system, and other reliable and accurate technologies, as well as our expert installation services, can help you prepare your fleet for the new DVS London safety standards. Bring the vehicles in your fleet with zero, one, or two-star ratings up to at least the required minimum three-star rating for successful DVS permit applications with our solutions for enhancing safety and efficiency.
Installed at the nearside of the vehicles, our DVS blind spot cameras minimise or eliminate blind spots to offer drivers complete visibility of their surroundings. Our team will install in-cab monitors close to a window edge or existing mirror alongside the blind spot cameras, reducing the time drivers need to take their eyes away from the road to view the monitors. Please note these cameras and monitors do not replace Class V and VI mirrors.
Our DVS compliance system also includes a sensor system that guarantees coverage of up to six metres down the nearside or one metre from the vehicle’s rear, whichever is smaller. These sensors operate even if turn indicators are not activated and will alert the driver to the presence of pedestrians or cyclists close to the vehicle.
Lastly, our team will install an audible warning system to warn vulnerable road users whenever the vehicle turns left. The system uses a combination of real speech and white noise at a volume between 65 and 88 decibels/dB(A) to ensure that a clear warning is sounded every time. If you have left-hand-drive heavy vehicles in your fleet, we will modify the system to warn cyclists and pedestrians whenever the vehicle makes a right turn.
DVS Permit Application: What You Need to Do
Before you can apply for DVS permits for the heavy vehicles in your fleet, you first need to check your vehicles’ star rating with the manufacturer. If your vehicles already have a rating of between three and five stars, you can submit an application without additional evidence of compliance.
However, if your vehicles do not meet at least the minimum requirements, you need to implement the necessary modifications and submit evidence of installation with your HGV safety permit application. You can submit evidence in the form of clear, colour photographs of the DVS compliance system installed in the vehicles. Additionally, you must submit photographs clearly displaying the vehicles’ registration numbers.
After installing the compliance system in your fleet’s heavy vehicles, you can complete and submit the application for written confirmation of your vehicles’ new DVS star ratings. The DVS permit application is free of charge. You can access application forms via the TfL website.
After you have completed the application process on the TfL website and submitted the necessary evidence, and your documentation has been approved, you will receive written confirmation from TfL that your heavy vehicles have DVS compliance. TfL will issue your DVS permit electronically, so you will not receive a hard copy of the permit.
TfL will enforce the DVS via the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras throughout Greater London. The cameras will record all vehicles that enter or travel through London and compare the registration numbers with TfL’s database of vehicles with valid HGV safety permits. Any vehicles that do not adhere to the DVS will receive a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN). The transport authority may also suspend or revoke the DVS permits of vehicles that are in breach of the permit terms.
Benefits of DVS Compliance
Keeping on the right side of the law and avoiding steep penalty charges are not the only benefits of DVS compliance. Other potential benefits include improved safety records and reduced liability risks.
Your drivers, as well as other road users, will be at less risk of collisions, which means there’s greater safeguarding of human life and wellbeing. Additionally, fewer collisions mean reduced spend on vehicle repairs. The presence of compliance systems could also see your fleet insurance premiums reduced, depending on your insurer’s policies. If your fleet’s liability risks are reduced, there’s less chance of your company being faced with lawsuits and loss of reputation.
Given the growing prominence of road safety as a critical issue in the UK, the Direct Vision Standard may well spread to other cities in the UK. Turn to Crystal Ball’s solutions for enhanced visibility, driver monitoring, and operational efficiencies to ensure DVS compliance and to future-proof your fleet.
Contact us to find out how we can help you keep your fleet compliant and safe on the road.