Guide
Preparing for a FORS audit: what a failure actually costs
Updated
The audit fee is not the expensive part of failing. Losing accreditation you told a customer you held is, and the recovery route has its own price list.
The price of getting it wrong
| Situation | Fee |
|---|---|
| Desk-based follow-up audit | £104 |
| On-site or remote follow-up audit | £245 |
| Enhanced audit following a FORS downgrade or suspension | £670 |
| Enhanced follow-up, desk-based | £104 |
| Enhanced follow-up, on-site or remote | £245 |
| Out of hours audit, standard rate | £546 |
FORS states that the type of follow-up audit is determined by the auditor based on the outcome of the initial audit, so you do not get to choose the cheaper one. Out of hours means before 09:00 or after 17:30 Monday to Friday, plus weekends and bank holidays.
What to have in the room
- The FORS documentation set, reviewed within the last 12 months. Requirement M1 catches policies that exist but have gone stale, and the Standard is explicit that an unreviewed health and safety policy is annotated against M1 rather than M8.
- Records for their required retention periods: the Standard specifies 12 months for drivers' hours records, 24 months for working time records, 15 months after expiry for statutory annual vehicle tests, and 14 weeks for vehicle nil defects records or until the next inspection.
- Driver training evidence completed within the past 12 months for work-related road risk, from the list the Standard sets out.
- Operator licence position, including a declaration by the responsible person of any enforcement sanctions in the past 12 months and any impending regulatory action.
- Temporary vehicles and drivers. The Standard applies the same requirements to leased and hired vehicles, sub-contracted and agency drivers, and anyone driving on the organisation's business regardless of who owns the vehicle.
The scope trap
FORS defines vehicle categories precisely, and getting the scope wrong is an easy way to fail. HGV means a goods vehicle over 3.5 tonnes gross weight, or an alternatively fuelled vehicle over 4.25 tonnes, and expressly includes wheeled plant such as mobile cranes and concrete pumps, but expressly excludes earth moving machinery, excavators, hoists, elevating work platforms, reach stackers and forklifts. Vans, passenger carrying vehicles, cars and powered light vehicles including cargo bikes each have their own definition.
A sensible sequence
- Read the Bronze audit question set, published by FORS alongside the Standard. It is the actual test.
- Gap the four Bronze areas against your current documentation, records and equipment before booking anything.
- Fix the 12 month items first. Document reviews and driver training are the requirements most likely to be out of date on the day.
- Book with audit protection for a first audit. £51 more at the standard Bronze rate against a £245 follow-up is straightforward arithmetic.
- Get a mock audit if you are new to the Standard. Our form puts you in front of consultants who run them.
Eligibility is worth checking before anything else: FORS requires an operator to be a legal entity, which may be a limited company, charity, voluntary group, partnership, public authority or sole trader, with a correspondence address directly connected to the operation of that entity.