What each regime asks for, and the record we keep for it
None of these rules tell you what software to use. They tell you what a record must show: the vehicle, the person, the date and time, the items in force that day, who found and cleared each fault, and how long to keep it. This section sets that out in plain words, regime by regime.
Regimes
HVNL and Chain of Responsibility
The primary duty, executive due diligence and what changed on 1 August 2026.
Read the plain-words versionNHVAS and Heavy Vehicle Accreditation
The daily check minimum items, fault handling, servicing, the register and retention.
Read the plain-words versionBus operator accreditation
NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia.
Read the plain-words versionNew Zealand
Certificate of Fitness, Road User Charges, HSWA, and no Chain of Responsibility.
Read the plain-words versionThe NHVAS and HVA records
Keeps the records your NHVAS maintenance audit asks for: daily checks, faults, repairs and deferrals, services done and missed, the vehicle register, procedures, internal reviews and the non-conformance register. The Heavy Vehicle Accreditation scheme started on 1 August 2026, and an NHVAS accreditation runs until it expires. We have not yet mapped these records to the HVA standards.
Non-conformances
Raised from an internal review, a missed check, an overdue service, an audit or an incident, with the corrective action, who is responsible and a due date. Closed with a verification note and a supervisor’s signature, then locked.
Internal reviews
Quarterly or annual, with the reviewer, a note on their independence and the findings. The reviewer signs, and a finding raises a non-conformance.
Responsibilities
Each maintenance task with the person or position who holds it, their deputy and the dates. A suggested task list to start from, in your own words.
Procedures
Every version kept with its file. Drivers open the current one on the phone and press “I have read this”, and the dashboard shows who has not.
Workshops and mechanics
Who maintains the fleet, with their qualification, evidence and expiry date, picked on each work order.
Quarterly maintenance statement
Checks done and missed per vehicle, and services done on time, late and missed, with “Raise a non-conformance” beside each miss.
Auditor pack
The vehicles and dates you choose, arranged under NHVAS Standards 1 to 8, printable, with the data and its SHA-256 fingerprint to download.
Auditor and roadside links
Read-only links you issue on purpose. They expire, you can revoke them, and every opening is logged. The page says it does not state the vehicle is roadworthy.
Incident and near-miss register
Reported from the phone with photos, other parties and a sketch, then investigated and closed on the dashboard. Records only: Escudo never decides whether an incident must be reported.
Retention, regime by regime
Electronic records are accepted under NHVAS and the Queensland and Victorian schemes. Escudo Fleet keeps every record while your account is open, and you can export it all at any time. An administrator can set a retention period in Settings, never less than 3 years, or 5 for a Queensland passenger operator. No one in your organisation can delete a check, fault, work order, sign-off, document, notice or incident younger than that floor, and older records go only after a full export in the last 30 days.
What Escudo Fleet does not do
- Mass management
- Fatigue and work diaries
- Unfit to drive decisions
- Fitness-for-duty and drug and alcohol declarations
- Deciding whether an incident must be reported, whether a vehicle is roadworthy, or whether it conforms to the NHVIM
- Lodging anything with the NHVR, a state regulator, WorkSafe, NZTA or an insurer. We record that you did, and your reference
What makes a record defensible
It identifies both the vehicle and the person. It captures the date and time at the moment of the check, not when the sheet was filed. It shows the items in force that day, which means the template version. It carries who found, assessed, deferred or cleared each fault and when, with a brake test record. It has photos. It sits in an append-only audit log. And it exports as a whole chain per vehicle, from the first fault to the repair.
That is what Escudo Fleet is built to produce.
We keep the record. We do not interpret the rule. Escudo Fleet is not approved or endorsed by any regulator or scheme, does not guarantee an audit outcome, and nothing on these pages is legal advice.
Have the record before the audit, not after
Create your fleet, paste your registrations, print the tags and send a driver the link. Fourteen days free, no card and no hardware.