How Van Fleets Accrued £400K in Fines and How You Can Avoid Them with SmartCheck

A recent FleetPoint exposé revealed a startling trend that UK van drivers are being hit with hundreds of thousands of pounds in fines for vehicle safety breaches such as overloading. 

Vehicle defects and overloading are common grounds for roadside prohibitions and penalties and almost 50% of van drivers admit they routinely exceed payload limits. Overloaded vans compromise braking, handling, and tyre integrity, increasing accident risks. 

The Reality Behind the Headlines 

• Braking at 30 mph with a heavy load increases stopping distance by 33%. 
• Over 60% of roadside van checks reveal serious mechanical issues or overloading. 
• Around 80% of roadside prohibitions due to roadworthiness could have been avoided if an effective walk-around vehicle safety check had taken place. 
• £390,000 in fines were handed out for overloaded or unsafe vans in the past year alone. The average fine being £2000. 

This isn't just about financial pain and impact on customers. Overloaded and unsafe vans pose a risk to van drivers themselves and to other road users. 

Introducing SmartCheck by Descartes 

Descartes SmartCheck is a vehicle safety check app that is part of the Descartes SmartCompliance™ solution that will help you ensure your vans are roadworthy and safe before drivers depart.  It guides drivers through a series of vehicle safety checks that cover Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) requirements and any additional specific items unique to your operations.    

The date, time, location and duration of the check are automatically recorded to give fleet managers the reassurance that the checks actually took place. Results and any supporting photographic evidence are captured in real time and recorded on office-based systems. 

With reliable data and management information available operators can demonstrate their compliance and use the information to focus on any problem areas of non-compliance that could result in expensive fines or loss of the operators’ licence.   

Get Started with Real-Time Vehicle Safety Checks 

Don’t let your fleet become another statistic in the growing pile of van safety fines. Visit SmartCheck by Descartes today to discover how real-time vehicle safety checks with digital audit trails can improve safety and eliminate potential fines over your commercial fleet.  

References:

FleetPoint and DVSA data on van overloading, mechanical failures and related fines (2023–2025) FleetPoint