How OCRS Works

OCRS is worked out for each of your operator licences. An individual vehicle will not have its own OCRS.​

When DVSA detects a new offence or identifies a defect, points will get added to your OCRS.​

When DVSA records an event where no points are allocated (known as a ‘clear event’), this will reduce your OCRS.​

Events that happened more than 3 years ago are removed from your OCRS. This means your score will change, depending on whether the events from ​3 years ago were positive or negative.

You will not have an OCRS score if you have a new licence or have not interacted with DVSA in the last 3 years.​

You will not have an OCRS if you only operate vehicles exempt from operator licensing.

Events are categorised as either roadworthiness or traffic to make up your overall score.​

DVSA will give you points when a test, inspection, fleet assessment or desk-based assessment finds a vehicle defect or offence. ​

The number of points is determined by how serious the defect or offence is. You’ll get more points for more serious defects or offences.​

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When OCRS is updated​

The OCRS re-scoring process runs every day. This allows:​

• newly encountered operators to be scored​
• new events (such as vehicle encounters and annual tests) to be included in scores​
• new vehicles that you’ve added to your operator licence to be included​
• older event scores to be changed to reflect the relevant year weighting​
• expired events (those over 3 years old) to be removed from OCRS​

Your score will update early in the morning. Your report will be updated at the same time.​

Your score will be affected by any issues found by DVSA during:​

• a roadside vehicle check​
• your MOT results​
• remote enforcement checks (called desk-based assessments)​
• a site visit from DVSA (called a fleet assessment)​

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When your vehicle is stopped at the roadside DVSA will check:​

• if your vehicle is safe to drive​
• your driver is following drivers’ hours rules

If the examiner finds any issues and gives you a prohibition, this will affect your score. If the examiner does not find any issues this will ​be classed as a ‘clear event’ and will not increase your score.​

Any prohibitions issued to a trailer during a roadside check are allocated to the vehicle pulling the trailer and will affect your OCRS.

A ‘sifted’ encounter is a roadside check where a DVSA examiner carries out a walkaround check and decides that a full inspection is not needed.​Encounters that have been ‘sifted’ by DVSA examiners are not classed as an event so are not included as part of the scoring system. For example:

• it’s a brand new vehicle​
• the vehicle has recently had an annual test​
• the vehicle has recently had a roadside inspection​
• it’s a vehicle belonging to a DVSA earned recognition accredited operator

DVSA will check the results of your vehicle’s MOT.​

If your vehicle fails the MOT, this will increase your score. If your vehicle passes its MOT, this will be classed as a ‘clear event’ and will not increase your score.​

Trailer MOT results will not be included in your roadworthiness score.