Data
Methodology
Where every field on HaulierScope comes from, what it means, when we read it, what it does not prove, and how to cite it.
The register at a glance
The DVSA operator licence data, file dated 7 September 2026, lists 69,122 licences in force in Great Britain: 64,036 goods vehicle licences and 5,086 passenger (PSV) licences. 46.2% of them (31,965) are restricted, so their holders may carry only their own goods or run small passenger vehicles outside a passenger-transport business. 522 licences were curtailed and 17 suspended on that date; the rest were valid.
| Licence type | Goods | PSV |
|---|---|---|
| Standard International | 9,726 | 1,691 |
| Standard National | 23,553 | 2,187 |
| Restricted | 30,757 | 1,208 |
| Vehicles authorised | 603,028 | 87,419 |
| Median vehicles per licence | 3 | 4 |
Figures are HaulierScope’s count of the DVSA file and change when DVSA publishes a new one. Every guide on this site quotes the same figures. For the current age of each source, see data status. To see one licence, run a free operator licence check.
Source
All licence data comes from the dataset “Traffic Commissioners: goods and public service vehicle operator licence records”, published by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) as eight CSV files, one per traffic area in Great Britain. It is open data under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Northern Ireland licences are not in this dataset.
The file lists licences that are in force: valid, curtailed or suspended. Each row is one licence, repeated once for each director, partner or transport manager; we keep one row per licence and drop those names.
The newest file we hold is dated 7 September 2026 and lists 69,127 licences.
How often it updates
DVSA says the records are updated weekly. In practice a week is sometimes skipped. We check for a new file twice a day, check each new file for completeness, keep a dated copy, and only then load it. The “file dated” on every page is the date DVSA last changed the file, not the date we read it. Nothing on HaulierScope is live or real-time.
What each field means
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Licence number | Two letters and seven digits. The first letter is O for goods vehicles or P for passenger vehicles (PSV). The second letter is the traffic area. |
| Licence type | Standard International, Standard National or Restricted. Special restricted PSV licences (for taxi and private hire licence holders) are not in the file. See the disc key below. |
| Status | Valid, curtailed or suspended. See Status. |
| Vehicles authorised | The most vehicles the operator may use under the licence at any time. |
| Vehicles specified | Vehicles currently listed on the licence. Usually fewer than authorised. |
| Trailers authorised | The most trailers the operator may use (goods licences). |
| Operating centres | Where vehicles are kept when not in use. The file joins all centres into one text field, cut off at 1,024 characters; we say so when that happens. |
| Continuation date | The licence is continued on this date every five years. The fee for a goods licence is due by the end of the month before. It is not an expiry date. |
| Operator type | Limited company, LLP, sole trader, partnership or other organisation, as DVSA records it. |
| Company number | The Companies House number DVSA holds, cleaned to its standard form. We link to Companies House. |
The disc key
We mark each licence type with a disc, after the licence disc operators show in each vehicle. The discs differ by shape and fill, so they read in print and without colour. They are our own marks, not DVSA’s colours.
- Standard International: hire or reward in Great Britain and abroad.
- Standard National: hire or reward in Great Britain.
- Restricted: own goods only, not for hire or reward.
- A bar under the letters marks a passenger (PSV) licence.
Status
The file gives a status code. We map it as follows, and never show an unknown code as valid.
| DVSA code | Shown as |
|---|---|
lsts_valid | Valid |
lsts_curtailed | Curtailed: a Traffic Commissioner has reduced what the licence allows, for a set period or for the rest of the licence’s life |
lsts_suspended | Suspended: the licence must not be used for a period |
| anything else | Status not yet mapped |
What the register does not prove
A valid licence shows that a traffic commissioner has authorised the holder to operate. The DVSA file does not show, and HaulierScope cannot confirm:
- insurance of any kind, including goods-in-transit cover;
- a safety record or roadside results: OCRS scores are not public and are not in the file (see OCRS explained);
- the conditions and undertakings recorded on a licence (see undertakings and conditions);
- which vehicles are specified: the file gives counts, not registrations;
- why a licence left the file: it may have been revoked, surrendered or terminated, or left out by mistake;
- financial health, or that a particular driver is qualified.
Our guide to checking a haulier’s operator licence lists where to check each of these.
Licences missing from a file
When a licence is in one file and not in the next, the file does not say why. It may have been revoked, surrendered, or left out by mistake. We show “Not in the DVSA file dated …” and never “revoked”, unless a published source confirms it.
Change history
We compare each accepted file with the one before it, field by field, and store every difference with both file dates. Our history starts with the file dated 7 September 2026; we hold nothing from before it. See weekly changes.
Traffic areas
Great Britain has eight traffic areas, each with a Traffic Commissioner. The second letter of the licence number shows the area:
| Letter | Traffic area |
|---|---|
F | East of England |
K | London and the South East of England |
B | North East of England |
C | North West of England |
M | Scotland |
G | Wales |
D | West Midlands |
H | West of England |
Privacy
- We never store or show director, partner or transport manager names, or correspondence addresses. They are dropped when we load the file.
- For sole traders and partnerships, the operator name is usually a person’s name. Their pages are not indexed by search engines, not in sitemaps or lists, and show the town and postcode district of each operating centre only. You find them by licence number or exact full name.
- Anyone named on a licence can ask us to withhold the record. A withheld record says so; it is never shown as “no record found”.
Read the privacy notice and how to ask for a correction or removal.
Limits
- We reproduce the DVSA file. If the file is wrong, we are wrong until DVSA publishes a fix.
- We read town names and postcodes from a free-text address field, so a few may be read imperfectly. Tell us and we will fix it.
- HaulierScope is not the official register and is not endorsed by DVSA or the Traffic Commissioners.
How to cite HaulierScope
Cite the page you used and the DVSA file date it shows, because the data changes when DVSA publishes a new file. For a register-wide figure, cite this page. For one licence, cite its licence page.
HaulierScope, “Methodology”, DVSA operator licence data, file dated 7 September 2026. https://haulierscope.co.uk/methodology. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Example sentence: “In the DVSA operator licence data, file dated 7 September 2026, 46.2% of GB operator licences were restricted (31,965 of 69,122; HaulierScope analysis).” Read how we write and check our guides in our editorial standards.