Vehicle compliance for care and home-visit services
Most of your driving happens in staff's own cars, between one visit and the next. VCT keeps those cars on the same list as your pool cars and minibuses, checks their MOT and tax every night, and tracks when each carer's business insurance runs out.
Your fleet is parked outside your carers' homes
A home care agency, a community health team or a visiting charity can have dozens of people driving for work every day, and own very few of the cars. Each carer has their own MOT date, their own tax renewal and their own insurance policy. The reminder letters go to their homes, and the office only hears about a problem when someone mentions it.
That makes the everyday questions slow to answer:
- Is every car on today's rota taxed, with a valid MOT?
- Does each carer have business-use cover, and when does it run out?
- When did we last check each driver's licence?
- Have new starters' cars been added since the last update?
- If an insurer, a funder or an inspector asks for evidence, can we find it?
With staff turnover, a spreadsheet that was right in January can be out of date by March.
Staff driving their own cars is still driving for work
HSE's guidance for employers whose workers drive for work says you must manage the health and safety risks to workers who drive as part of their job. It asks you to do a risk assessment that looks at the journey, the driver and the vehicle.
The same guidance says the law applies to grey fleet vehicles as well as company vehicles. HSE describes a grey fleet vehicle as one a worker owns and drives for business. For a care service, that usually includes the cars staff use to travel between clients.
Our guide to grey fleet duty of care goes through what to check and how often. The grey fleet compliance page shows how VCT handles staff cars in more detail.
Carers' cars on the same list as your pool cars and minibuses
In VCT a staff car is a vehicle like any other. It sits in the fleet table and the Action centre next to the vehicles you own, with a Grey fleet view one click away.
- Road tax checked with DVLA and the MOT checked with DVSA every night
- Business insurance expiry shown next to company vehicles
- Reminder emails before an MOT or tax runs out, with a Due soon window of 30 days
- Full DVSA MOT history, including advisories such as a tyre near the legal limit
- Daily walkaround checks on phones for pool cars and minibuses, with defects sent to the office
From a new starter's car to a checked record
- The carer adds their car. From the driver app in their phone's browser. There's nothing to install, and the office doesn't have to chase registrations.
- VCT checks it that night. Road tax with DVLA and the MOT with DVSA, then again every night after that.
- Insurance and licence go on record. The business insurance expiry date sits on the car's record, and you record the licence check and the carer's consent.
- Problems come to you. An expired MOT or missing tax goes to the top of the Action centre, and the weekly round-up lists everything due in the next 30 days.
With the text-message add-on (£10 a month for up to 200 texts), VCT can also text a carer when the MOT, tax or insurance on their car is about to run out.
Licence checks for every carer who drives
A checked car is only half of it. You also need to know the person driving it holds the right licence. VCT keeps your licence check records in the same place as the vehicles.
- Record each licence check and the carer's consent
- Carers can share a DVLA check code from the driver app
- See when each driver's next check is due
Evidence ready when someone asks for it
An insurer, a funder or an inspector may ask how you manage staff who drive for work. VCT keeps the records as you go.
- A compliance pack PDF for a chosen period and depot: road-legal status, every inspection, every defect and how fast it was fixed, MOT tests, services and costs
- A weekly round-up email to admins and managers on the day you choose
- Export everything at any time
One price per vehicle, staff cars included
Every vehicle costs the rate for your fleet's size: £3.50 per vehicle a month for 10 to 24 vehicles, £3.25 for 25 to 49, £3.00 for 50 to 99, £2.75 for 100 to 149 and £2.50 for 150 to 200. The minimum is 10 vehicles (£35 a month). Prices exclude VAT, you pay monthly and there's no contract. For more than 200 vehicles, get in touch.
For example, an agency with 35 carers' cars and 3 pool cars has 38 vehicles: 38 × £3.25 = £123.50 a month.
If prices go up, existing customers keep the price they signed up at. There's no free trial, so try the live demo with one of your own vehicles instead. Your data is stored in the EU, and you can export all of it at any time. See how the nightly MOT and tax checks work.
Care provider FAQs
Do carers need to download an app?
No. VCT runs in the phone's web browser. Carers sign in once and see the car they use for work. There's nothing to install from an app store.
Does VCT check that a carer's car has business insurance?
VCT tracks the business insurance expiry date for each staff car and shows it next to your company vehicles. It doesn't contact insurers, so it can't tell you what a policy covers. Ask to see the certificate.
Are driving licence checks automatic?
Not yet. Today you record licence checks and the driver's consent in VCT, drivers can share a DVLA check code from the driver app, and VCT shows when each check is due. Automatic licence checking with DVLA is coming soon.
Can we track pool cars and minibuses too?
Yes. Company vehicles sit next to staff cars in the same fleet table. Drivers can do a daily walkaround check on their phone, and any red or amber item goes to the office as work with an owner.
Will VCT make us compliant?
VCT helps you stay on top of MOT, tax, insurance dates and licence checks, and keeps the records you'd show an insurer or inspector. It can't promise legal compliance or tell you what a regulator expects of your service, so check the guidance that applies to you.
How much does it cost?
£3.50 per vehicle a month, falling to £2.50 per vehicle for bigger fleets (minimum £35 a month), ex VAT. Staff cars count as vehicles. For example, 38 vehicles cost 38 × £3.25 = £123.50 a month. Monthly, with no contract.
See it with one of your own vehicles
Enter a registration and your email on the homepage. We'll send you a link to a demo of VCT with your vehicle looked up live with DVLA and DVSA.