68 operators already members of scheme which DVSA says will continue to develop
The DVSA’s new Earned Recognition scheme now has 68 participating organisations, and more entrants are in the pipeline.
The companies on the scheme include 252 operator licences that cover approximately six per cent of the national operator fleet, DVLA Senior Customer Engagement Manager, Phil Jowitt, told a Euro Bus Expo seminar introducing the Earned Recognition Scheme, which was officially launched earlier this year.
Mr Jowitt says members currently tend to be in the larger size of the industry although it is also open to small and medium-sized operators.
“The scheme itself works for everybody in our opinion.”
Evidence DVSA is seeing shows standards are being maintained above the required Key Performance Indicators (KPI). “That is pleasing for us,” says Mr Jowitt.
DVSA has authorised 14 Earned Recognition scheme audit providers and is currently validating 33 IT systems for measuring KPIs.
“We are continuing to develop the scheme. We have rolled it out, it works, we think it is very good but it is not perfect. So we are going to have continuous improvement and development on it.”
DVSA representatives say there is no intention to make it a commercial scheme and the understanding at the moment is membership will remain purely voluntary.
Luckett’s Travel was the first accredited Earned Recognition operator in April, after being involved in the pilot scheme.
Ian Luckett, Director of Luckett’s Holdings, says: “It is really worthwhile and we are at the start with 68 operators at the moment on the scheme. There are quite a number, in the hundreds, that are in the process and it will be really good for this to start gathering momentum.”
