Transport compliance consultant in the Midlands

Working with Midlands operators

The Midlands sits in the middle of the UK’s logistics “golden triangle”. Magna Park at Lutterworth, DIRFT near Daventry, East Midlands Gateway beside East Midlands Airport, and Hams Hall and Birch Coppice in north Warwickshire are all within a short drive of each other. The M1, M6, M42, M69, A14 and A5 link them. The airport is one of the country’s main express air freight hubs. Around Coventry, Solihull and Derby, the automotive supply chain runs to tight delivery windows.

That shapes the work. Many Midlands operators run for national retailers, parcel networks and manufacturers, and their contracts come with supplier audits. As a transport compliance consultant for the Midlands, the requests we see most are for ISO 9001, a documented health and safety system that covers busy yards and loading bays, and FORS where the work includes construction, public sector or London deliveries.

Four Traffic Commissioners, one region

The Midlands is not one traffic area. Your licence is held in the traffic area where your operating centre sits, and in the Midlands that can be any of four:

A fleet with depots at Magna Park and Hams Hall therefore deals with two Commissioners and holds two licences. Each one needs its own authorisation, maintenance arrangements and financial standing of £8,000 for the first vehicle and £4,500 for each additional vehicle on a standard licence. Changes such as a new transport manager must be notified within 28 days. We set up procedures that work across every licence you hold.

On the road, the Central Motorway Police Group patrols the West Midlands motorway network and has taken part in Operation Vertebrae, the multi-force week of action on the M6 that uses unmarked National Highways HGV cabs. DVSA roadside checks feed every result into your Operator Compliance Risk Score.

Large fleets, trailers and brake testing

Midlands trunking operations run a lot of trailers, and that is where DVSA’s brake testing expectations bite. Since April 2025, the Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness says every safety inspection should include a laden brake performance assessment. The accepted methods are a laden roller brake test, an EBPMS report for trailers, or a decelerometer test. Every attempt should be made to do a laden roller brake test. Where a test is not laden, a competent person must record a risk assessment. Operators without EBPMS should run at least four laden brake tests a year, including the annual test.

Larger fleets often aim for DVSA Earned Recognition. Its maintenance measures count an inspection as on time if it is done before or during the ISO week it is due, measured against the interval on your licence, and performance is reported in four-week periods. If your system cannot show that, start there. Roadworthy, our fleet compliance software, keeps the inspection and maintenance calendar, defects and driver records in one place. See the Roadworthy page.

Yards and loading bays

At big distribution sites, many of the serious accidents happen off the public road. Typical causes are reversing in the yard, coupling and uncoupling, falls from trailers, and loads shifting when the doors open. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 cover this work, including regulation 17 on traffic routes. HSE’s workplace transport guide (HSG136) sets out what good looks like. Most road collisions are not reportable under RIDDOR 2013, but accidents during loading and unloading can be. Your risk assessments need to cover your own yard and the work your drivers do on customers’ sites. Drivers also need to know each site’s rules before they arrive.

ISO 9001:2026 and Birmingham’s Clean Air Zone

ISO 9001:2026 was published on 16 September 2026. If you hold an ISO 9001:2015 certificate, you have until 30 September 2029 to move to the new edition. From 31 March 2028, new certifications can only be issued to the 2026 edition. If you are starting now, build to ISO 9001:2026 where your certification body is ready for it.

Birmingham is the only charging Clean Air Zone in the Midlands on the Government’s list. Euro VI lorries do not pay. Older lorries and vans that miss the standard pay a daily charge inside the A4540 Middleway ring road. Check every registration before you price regular city-centre work.

How we help in the Midlands

• ISO 9001 quality systems built from how your operation really runs.
• Health and safety: yard traffic management, loading bay safety, COSHH and RIDDOR.
• FORS Bronze to Gold against version 7.2.
• Transport manuals that work across several licences and depots.
• Pharmaceutical GDP for carriers moving medicines from Midlands distribution centres.