How to vet a subcontracted haulier: a checklist

To vet a subcontracted haulier, check that its operator licence is valid, standard (not restricted) and in the same legal name as your contract; that the company is active at Companies House; and that it holds goods-in-transit and motor insurance. Then keep checking, because a licence can be curtailed, suspended or ended after you approve it.

This checklist is for shippers, freight forwarders, brokers and main contractors in Great Britain who hand loads to other hauliers. Northern Ireland has a separate licensing system and is not covered here.

Why vetting matters

Vetting protects your loads, your customers and your own name. If the haulier you choose is not licensed for the work, the risk lands on the goods you gave them.

Three points from GOV.UK explain the stakes:

• An unlicensed lorry can be taken off the road. "It is illegal to operate your vehicle before a licence (or interim licence) is issued… your vehicle could be impounded" (GOV.UK goods licensing guide). If your goods are on board, they stop too.
• A licence covers one legal entity. Licences are not transferable. "A new licence for the new entity must be obtained before operating" (same guide). A haulier that has changed its company may be working on someone else's licence.
• Restricted licences do not allow paid haulage. A restricted licence "allows you to carry your own goods, but not other people's goods" (GOV.UK). In the DVSA operator licence data, file dated 7 September 2026, 46.2% of GB licences were restricted (31,965 of 69,122).

The operator licence rules place their duties on the licence holder, the "user" of the vehicle. Your own liability to your customer, and theirs to you, depends on your contracts. Get legal advice on contract terms. The checks below give you the facts to base them on.

The checklist

Run these ten checks before the first load. The first six come from the operator licence register and take a few minutes. The last four need documents from the haulier.

Take the checklist with you: download the vetting checklist (PDF) to print or file, or the same checklist as a spreadsheet (CSV) to track a list of hauliers.

Some notes on the harder checks:

• Check 3. For international hire or reward, the haulier needs a standard international licence. That applies to vans too: since May 2022, GB operators carrying goods for hire or reward into the EU in vans over 2.5 tonnes and up to 3.5 tonnes need a standard international licence (GOV.UK). Inside the UK, vans of 3.5 tonnes or less need no operator licence.
• Check 4. Vehicles authorised is a ceiling, not the fleet. A gap between authorised and specified vehicles is normal. In the DVSA file dated 7 September 2026, 64.3% of goods licences had one. The red flag is the other way round: more lorries on your work than the licence allows.
• Check 5. One licence can cover several depots. In the DVSA file dated 7 September 2026, 13,252 licences listed more than one operating centre, and one licence listed 22. Look for the depot you will collect from, not just the head office.
• Check 6. Every standard licence must nominate a transport manager. HaulierScope does not publish transport manager, director or partner names, so ask the haulier who it is. The weekly Applications and Decisions bulletin names the transport manager on new applications and changes, and DVSA's open data file has a transport manager column for each licence.
• International loads. A standard international licence brings a UK Licence for the Community, which covers the EU, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. For Norway, GOV.UK says "you now need a bilateral road haulage permit" (GOV.UK).
• Check 7. Companies House shows registered address, incorporation date, officers, filings and insolvency information for free, and offers free email alerts when a company updates its details (GOV.UK). If a haulier enters liquidation or administration, a traffic commissioner can revoke its licence; see operator licences in liquidation and administration.

For a field-by-field walk through the licence record, read how to check a haulier's operator licence.

What to ask the haulier for

Ask for these documents before the first booking and keep copies:

• Operator licence number (and every licence number, if they run depots in more than one traffic area)
• Company registration number and registered office
• Goods-in-transit insurance certificate, with the limit per load and any excluded goods
• Motor fleet insurance certificate
• Public or employers' liability certificate, if they will load or unload on your site
• The registrations of the vehicles they will send, so you can match them to the licence
• For international work: confirmation of a UK Licence for the Community, which standard international holders receive at no extra fee
• Two trading references
• Bank details on headed paper, confirmed by phone to a number you found yourself

A haulier with nothing to hide sends these quickly. Delays or partial answers are information too.

How long vetting takes

The register checks take a few minutes per haulier. The full process takes as long as the haulier needs to send documents and references to reply.

Treat vetting as two jobs:

Most failures happen in the second job. A haulier that passed in January can lose its licence in June.

Vetting a list of 50+ hauliers

Checking one haulier by hand is quick. Checking a supplier list of 50 or 500 by hand is a day's work, and you would need to repeat it every week.

You have two options:

1. Use the open data yourself. DVSA publishes the full register as eight CSV files, one per traffic area, on data.gov.uk under the Open Government Licence. Match your list on licence number (more reliable than names). Each licence appears on several rows, one for each director, partner or transport manager, so remove duplicates first. All of a licence's operating centres sit in one field, separated by semicolons.
2. Use a bulk check. HaulierScope operator licence monitoring checks a whole supplier list against the latest DVSA file in one go, and you can then watch the matched licences for changes. Our methodology page explains how we read the DVSA files.

Ongoing monitoring: why a one-off check goes stale

The register changes every week. Licences are curtailed, suspended, revoked, surrendered and newly granted, and none of that reaches you unless you look.

Two figures from the DVSA file dated 7 September 2026 show the scale:

• 522 licences were curtailed and 17 suspended on that date.
• 12,652 licences have a continuation date in the 12 months after that file date. At continuation the holder must pay the fee and confirm its details. The Senior Traffic Commissioner's guidance says "failure to pay on time results in automatic termination of the licence" (GOV.UK).

When a licence ends, it drops out of the next DVSA file. Our weekly changes report lists new, changed and missing licences across Great Britain. To follow only your own hauliers, add them to a HaulierScope watchlist and get a weekly email when status, type, name, vehicles, operating centres or continuation date change, or when a licence is not in the newest DVSA file. Our data is updated when DVSA publishes a new file (the newest is dated 7 September 2026). You can also run a free operator licence check on any haulier at any time.

Keep an evidence trail

If a load goes wrong, you may need to show what you checked and when. A note saying "checked, fine" is weak. A dated record of the licence as it stood that day is strong.

Keep, for each haulier:

• The date of each licence check and the DVSA file date it was based on
• The status, type and vehicles authorised you saw
• Copies of insurance certificates with their renewal dates
• Companies House status on the approval date
• Who approved the haulier, and any conditions you set

HaulierScope monitoring can export a dated record of each watched licence, showing the DVSA file it came from, for your audit file. For licence status meanings, see curtailed, suspended and revoked licences.

Frequently asked questions

What steps are involved in the carrier vetting process?

Carrier vetting has four steps. First, check the operator licence: holder name, valid status, standard type and enough vehicles authorised. Second, check the company at Companies House. Third, collect insurance certificates, references and vehicle registrations. Fourth, monitor the licence and insurance dates for as long as the carrier works for you, because the approval only reflects the day you ran it.

What do they check when vetting?

A haulier vetting check covers the operator licence (name, status, type, vehicles authorised, operating centres, transport manager), the company record (active status, filings, insolvency), insurance (goods in transit, motor, liability), trading references and the contract terms. The licence register does not show insurance, OCRS safety scores or financial health, so those come from documents and other sources.

How long does the vetting process take?

The operator licence and Companies House checks take a few minutes per haulier. Collecting insurance certificates and references depends on how fast the haulier and its customers reply. Ongoing monitoring never ends: re-check the licence each time DVSA publishes a new file, or use alerts so changes come to you.

What information do I need from a subcontractor?

Ask a subcontracted haulier for its operator licence number, company registration number, goods-in-transit and motor insurance certificates, liability insurance if it works on your site, the registrations of the vehicles it will use, and two trading references. For international work, ask for confirmation that it holds a standard international licence. Check that every document is in the same legal name.

Can I pay a subcontractor without verifying them?

The operator licensing rules put duties on the licence holder, not on the customer, so no licensing rule makes you verify before paying. But paying an unverified haulier is a risk: an unlicensed vehicle can be impounded with your goods on it, and an uninsured loss may fall on you. Verify the licence and confirm bank details by phone before the first payment.

Is a main contractor liable for a subcontractor?

It depends on your contracts and the facts, so take legal advice. Under operator licensing law, the licence holder is the "user" of the vehicle and carries the licensing duties. Your liability to your own customer is set by your contract with them, which is why many shippers require approval before any load is re-subcontracted.