Braking performance assessment requirements from April 2025

In a significant move to enhance road safety, the UK’s Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has announced that, effective April 2025, there is an expectation that every safety inspection will include a brake performance assessment using either an RBT, a suitable electronic brake performance monitoring system (EBPMS) or a decelerometer with temperature readings. If EBPMS is not used it is expected there is a minimum of four laden brake tests spread evenly across the year, this can include the annual test.

Acceptable reasons for not carrying out a laden brake assessment.

Vehicles where laden brake assessments may not be possible or where additional loading would be difficult are listed below (this is not an exhaustive list), however there is an expectation that at least four of the assessments will use an RBT unless the construction or weight of the vehicle prevents its use.

Vehicles where under normal operating conditions (more than 70% of the time) run at less than 65% of the permitted axle weights. This may include car transporters where they are designed for that specific task
Furniture removal vehicles – Only when designed and constructed as a furniture removal vehicle
ADR – Only when the load is considered dangerous and specialist facilities are not available
Vehicles operating at 50% or more of permitted axle weights when unladen – This could include fixed plant, mobile libraries, compactor vehicles, exhibition type vehicles, bullion vehicles, etc.

Where a laden brake test is not carried out a risk assessment detailing the reasons, must be completed by a competent person who understands braking systems and its components at every safety inspection.

There must be an evaluation of the vehicle/ trailer performance report before every safety inspection by a competent person who can interpret the data. The evaluation must be signed, dated, and attached to the vehicle record together with the performance data report. The evaluation and data report may be a single document.

To allow flexibility vehicles can be presented for brake testing up to 14 days before the safety inspection date; this allows the operator to conduct a laden brake test during the vehicle/trailer normal activities without the need to specially load it.

Reliable brake testing is crucial to ensure road safety, helping to identify any potential brake issues that may lead to accidents on the road, minimising risks to the HGV drivers and other road users.

What does this update mean for you?

To follow best practice and comply with the proposed new legislation, the DVSA expect that with every safety inspection a brake performance assessment is completed with an RBT, suitable electronic brake performance monitoring system (EBPMS) or using a decelerometer and taking temperature readings as the sole method for evaluating brake performance.

In some cases, a loaded brake test may be impractical. As such, if a vehicle or trailer consistently operates under specific conditions, exemptions may apply. Examples include:

ADR vehicles: when the load is considered dangerous, and specialist facilities are unavailable.
Livestock carriers: when recreating the load is not possible.
Noxious load carriers: only if the vehicle is specifically designed for this purpose.
Furniture removal vehicles: only if the vehicle is specifically designed for this purpose.
Public service vehicles: this includes prisoner transfer vehicles.
Vehicles that operate at 50% or more of permitted axle weight when unladen. This could include fixed plant, mobile libraries, compactor vehicles or bullion transport vehicles.
Vehicles that more than 70% of the time run at less than 65% of the permitted axle weights, these may include car transporters or unladen tri-axle semi-trailers.

For businesses running vehicles not fitted with an EBPMS (currently only available on trailers) or exempt, a minimum of four laden RBT assessments are required, these are to be spread evenly across the year and include the existing requirement to conduct a RBT at each MOT test. To ensure minimal disruption, these tests can be completed as early as 14 days before the next safety inspection date.

A risk assessment (example here) must be available to support every safety inspection where a laden brake test is not completed. The operator will still be responsible for a risk assessment is in place to justify any exemption. This assessment should be:

Available to review during every safety inspection.

Updated annually, or whenever there is a change in vehicle use.

Retained with vehicle maintenance documents for 15 months.

What Should Our Customers Do?

At Mac’s Truck Rental, we are dedicated to providing safe and roadworthy vehicles to our customers and as part of this dedication we will be working with our customers to ensure they re-main compliant.

To achieve this, we will continue to complete our standard 4 laden RBTs per year across our managed fleets, while supporting our customers’ unique operational needs but will offer an increase in the frequency of the laden brake tests being conducted at the customer’s request. (Conditions apply).

We will be available to assist our customers, offering advice on how the new requirements affect their operations, any potential cost implications and providing information on keeping their own fleet in compliance.

For more information on the Braking performance assessment requirements from April 2025 and further reading please see below links.

Guide to maintaining roadworthiness: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6751b5d044885d072cecbd62/guide-to-maintaining-roadworthiness-commercial-goods-and-public-service-vehicles.pdf

Brake test risk assessment: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67362fbaf6920bfb5abc7bc1/annex-7-example-of-a-brake-assessment-risk-assessment-template.pdf

Understanding your HGV or trailer’s brake test report: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/understanding-your-hgv-or-trailers-brake-test-report/understanding-your-hgv-or-trailers-brake-test-report

EBPMS Industry Standard Specification:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/electronic-braking-performance-monitoring-systems/electronic-braking-performance-monitoring-system-ebpms-industry-standard-specification

Fill in your details below to get more information from the team at Mac’s Truck Rental, whether you’re looking into contract hire or simply want to know more about one of our trucks.

At Mac’s Truck Rental, we’re experts in both truck rental and sales – and take the time to understand the needs of each of our customers, making sure the advantages of both are clearly communicated.

For businesses in particular, taking out truck contract hire on a big financial commitment can make a big difference to the overall costs involved, both short term and long term.

Short term, the main benefit to a business is that the initial outlay is much less than when purchasing a vehicle, meaning companies with lower overheads can gain access to quality trucks they need to complete their work. This also means that, especially in the short term, prices don’t have to rise to cover the large expense of buying a truck, keeping you as competitive as possible.

Long term, truck contract hire gives you peace of mind both operationally and financially.

Below, we’ll guide you through the various advantages of working with us to create a truck contract hire package to suit you, and how it can benefit your business in the long run.

Financially

Lower Monthly Costs

When taking our truck contract hire, the monthly price you pay covers the depreciation of the truck, rather than the actual cost of the truck in whole. This means that your monthly costs will be much lower than if you were to go down a route of hire purchase.

No Unexpected Vehicle Costs

Your monthly costs are fixed – and we guarantee that for the length of your contract. Therefore if you should ever have any trouble with your vehicle, we’ll make sure it’s fixed as soon as possible, whilst providing you with a replacement vehicle in the meantime.

VAT Benefits of Truck Contract Hire

VAT is only applied to the depreciation of a truck, and not the cost of the truck overall, meaning this saving can be passed on to you. Plus, because this is a business expense, at least 50% of the finance cost is recoverable with truck contract hire, and 100% of the maintenance element of the contract is recoverable.

Operationally

No fuss finding quality trucks

Part of the challenge of using trucks on a daily basis is finding one that is of high quality. With truck contract hire, that’s our responsibility. We only source the highest quality trucks, often building these from new to meet your specific requirements, meaning you don’t need to spend time going through the painstaking process of sourcing trucks.

Minimal administration is required

As servicing and ongoing maintenance is included within contract hire, again this saves you time and money by not having to go through all of the usual checks yourself. We’ll take care of arranging your 6-weekly checks, and will arrange for the standard requirements to be taken care of at times to suit you.

Cost-effective Fleet Management

Because of our existing relationship with truck manufacturers, and our long-standing history purchasing trucks, we can often command better prices, which can be passed on to you. This extends past the purchase of trucks, and also includes the servicing and maintenance side of ongoing truck costs, which benefit our customers because our experienced technicians can get all garage-work completed efficiently and as quickly as possible, minimising downtime.

We have a range of trucks available for long term hire, and can work with you to build something that’s ideal for your line of work. You can learn more about the trucks on offer below:

Skip trucks

Our skip trucks include Euro VI engines, 18 tonne GVW, VDL 14 tonne lift skip equipment plus full ongoing maintenance and company branding.

Beavertail Trucks

Our beavertail trucks come equipped with our own high quality truck bodies, with a range of features including fall arrest systems – protection straps mounted around the entire beavertail truck to meet safety regulations, a fully remote controlled winch system, and Euro VI engines that ensure your business is compliant with London’s Low Emission Zone (LEZ) regulations.

Hook Loaders

Our hookloaders come equipped with VDL hook lifts that are fully remote controlled and reassure you of VDL’s simple & highly reliable operation. Plus, once mounted onto the hook loader, our sheeting system automatically covers open cargo securely at both ends.

Tipper Grabs

Our tipper grabs feature bodies from Thompson, the UK’s Number 1 tipper bodybuilder, which are optimised to deliver strength without compromising the tipper grab trucks payload. Our tipper trucks also come equipped with Epsilon grab cranes, renowned for their performance in recycling, scrap and timber industries with high-performance clamshell buckets.

Lorry mounted cranes

We have Scania, DAF & Volvo lorry mounted crane trucks for hire, with cheesewedge, beavertails and flat bodies, plus FASSI cranes.

Moffett Mounted Curtain Siders

Our truck mounted forklift hire provides you with two high-quality vehicles designed to help you transport large and heavy goods easily: a DAF CF 370 truck with a 26ft curtainside, and a Moffett M5 truck mounted forklift.