Adding a vehicle to vehReports takes one thing: its number plate. Type in the registration and vehReports fills in the make, model, tax and MOT for you, then keeps the record up to date so your compliance picture stays current. This guide covers everything about a vehicle: how to add one, what each tab on the record is for, how to build a photo gallery, how to set per-vehicle hire rates, and how the needs-attention flag keeps tax and MOT from slipping.
Adding, editing and managing vehicles is completely free and unlimited — there is no credit cost for adding a vehicle, looking it up against DVLA, refreshing its MOT history, or editing it. Credits are only ever used for two actions: signing off an inspection report and signing a rental agreement. Everything you do on a vehicle record is free.
What a vehicle record is for
A vehicle is the thing you inspect and hire out. Once it exists in vehReports you can run inspection reports and rental agreements against it, and the record carries everything those flows need: the official DVLA details, a photo gallery, your standard hire rates, and the full MOT history. You only need to add a vehicle once — after that it's a permanent part of your fleet list, ready to pick from whenever you raise a report or an agreement.
This is for businesses inspecting, hiring out or checking their own or managed vehicles — fleets, rental and lease operators, dealers and workshops. It is not a consumer car-history lookup.
Adding a vehicle by registration
You can add a vehicle from the Vehicles page, or on the fly while you're starting a report or a rental agreement (the vehicle picker on those flows offers the same quick "Add vehicle" option, so you never have to break off what you're doing).
The three fields you fill in
The add-vehicle box asks for only three things:
- VRM (registration) — the number plate. This is the one field that matters; everything else is pulled in for you. It's stored in upper case and must be unique within your account, so you can't accidentally add the same plate twice.
- Display name — a friendly label for the vehicle, handy when you're running a fleet of similar vans or cars (for example "Fleet van 12" or "Courtesy car — silver Corsa"). This is required so every vehicle is easy to recognise in lists and pickers.
- Current mileage — optional. If you leave it blank it's auto-filled from the latest MOT reading; if you know a more recent figure, type it in.
Save, and vehReports immediately goes off to look the vehicle up. You'll see a confirmation that it's pulling the DVLA and MOT data, and you're taken straight to the new vehicle's record.
What fills in automatically
On save, vehReports looks the vehicle up against DVLA and the official MOT record and brings back:
- Make, model, colour and fuel type
- Year of manufacture
- Tax status and tax due date
- MOT status and due date
- Full MOT history, including each test's result, advisories and the recorded mileage
- The latest recorded MOT mileage, which is used to bring the vehicle's mileage up to date if it's higher than what you entered
- A representative image of the make and model, used as a placeholder until you add your own photos
This lookup is free and runs every time you add a vehicle, so the record starts complete rather than empty. There's nothing to switch on — it just happens. (If your company has turned the DVLA lookup off in settings, you'll fill the details in by hand instead; see company profile, settings and branding.)
A few fields aren't supplied by DVLA or the MOT record and are left for you to fill in if you want them: VIN, engine number and transmission. These are optional.
If a lookup doesn't return data
Occasionally DVLA has no record for a plate — a brand-new registration that hasn't propagated yet, a personal import, or an unusual private plate. When that happens you can still add the vehicle: the record is created and you simply type the make, model, colour, fuel type and the rest into the Details tab by hand. Nothing is blocked. You can also try refreshing the data later once DVLA catches up.
The vehicle record and its tabs
Every vehicle you add has its own record, opened from the Vehicles list. The full detail view is organised into tabs so each part of the vehicle has a clear home.
Details
The core information: registration, display name, year, make, model, colour, fuel type, transmission, VIN, engine number, tax due date and current mileage. Most of this is filled in for you from the DVLA lookup the moment you add the vehicle. You can edit any of it — useful for correcting a colour DVLA has slightly wrong, adding the VIN, or recording the transmission.
The Details tab also shows who added the vehicle and when, and when it was last changed, so there's always a clear record of where the data came from.
Gallery
A standing set of photos and videos of the vehicle — covered in full under Photos and videos below.
Rental defaults
The default daily hire rate, deposit and damage excess for this vehicle, which pre-fill onto new rental agreements — see Rental defaults below.
MOT history
The vehicle's full MOT record — see MOT history and the needs-attention flag below.
Photos and videos: the gallery
A vehicle's gallery is its standing set of images and videos — a reference for the vehicle's usual condition, useful for listings, for sharing, and for showing the vehicle in a fresh light. It's separate from the photos captured during an inspection.
Adding media
On the Gallery tab, upload photos and videos of the vehicle. There's no limit on how many you keep, and adding them is free.
Tagging by area
You can tag each item by area — exterior, interior or mechanical (or type your own tag) — so even a large gallery stays organised and easy to scan. Tagging is optional but pays off once you've got more than a handful of images.
The automatic image
Before you upload anything, the record shows an auto-generated render of the make and model, so vehicle lists, pickers and reports always have something to display rather than a blank space. As soon as you add your own photos, they take over as the vehicle's image. The auto-render quietly steps back in only if you remove all your own photos again.
Inspection photos are kept separate
Photos taken during a walkaround inspection belong to that report and its point in time — they're part of the signed record of how the vehicle looked on that day, and on completion they're watermarked with the registration, inspector and timestamp. The gallery, by contrast, is the vehicle's general, ongoing media and isn't tied to any single inspection. Adding a photo to the gallery won't change any past report, and vice versa.
Rental defaults: per-vehicle hire rates
If you hire this vehicle out, the Rental defaults tab is where you set its standard pricing so you're not retyping it on every booking.
What you can set
- Daily hire rate — the standard daily charge for this vehicle.
- Refundable deposit — the deposit you take and return.
- Damage excess — the excess the hirer is liable for.
All three are in £ and pre-fill onto any new rental agreement you raise for this vehicle. Raise an agreement and the numbers are already there — you just confirm or tweak them.
Why set them
It saves typing and keeps your pricing consistent across the team. Anyone raising an agreement for the vehicle starts from the right figures rather than guessing or copying from a spreadsheet.
Overriding on a specific hire
The defaults are a starting point, not a lock. On any individual agreement you can override the rate, deposit or excess for that one hire without touching the vehicle's defaults — handy for a weekly rate, a goodwill discount, or a higher deposit on a longer let.
How this differs from template charges
Per-vehicle rates are specific to one vehicle. Charges and wording that apply across the board — the mileage allowance, an admin fee, VAT handling, insurance clauses — live on your rental agreement template, not on the vehicle. So if a number looks wrong on an agreement, that tells you where to fix it: a per-vehicle figure on the vehicle's Rental defaults tab, a standard charge or clause on the template.
MOT history and the needs-attention flag
vehReports keeps each vehicle's compliance picture up to date, so nothing slips through the cracks.
MOT history
The MOT history tab shows the vehicle's past MOT results — pass or fail, any advisories, and the recorded mileage at each test. Because it's the official MOT record rather than something you maintain by hand, you can trust it without re-keying anything.
The needs-attention flag
In the Vehicles list, any vehicle with tax or MOT due or expired is flagged with a status badge so it stands out at a glance. "Due" here means within the next 30 days as well as already expired, so you get warning before a deadline passes rather than after. For a fleet, this is the quickest way to see what needs booking in. You can also turn on the "MOT / tax due or expired" filter on the Vehicles list to show only those vehicles — see finding vehicles and exporting the list for the full set of filters.
Keeping it current
The DVLA and MOT data refreshes from the official sources, and the latest MOT mileage feeds back into the vehicle's record automatically, so an MOT done last week is reflected without you doing anything. If you want to force a fresh pull — say after a recent test — you can refresh the vehicle's data from its record.
Finding, filtering and exporting vehicles
The Vehicles list shows your whole fleet with name, registration, year, make, model, colour, fuel and the compliance status badge. You can search by name or registration, filter by make, by fuel type, by registration date range, or by the needs-attention toggle, and export the filtered list to a spreadsheet. The full walkthrough is in finding vehicles and exporting the list.
Common questions and edge cases
Does adding a vehicle or refreshing its data cost a credit?
No. Adding vehicles, DVLA lookups, MOT history and editing are all free and unlimited. Credits are only used to sign off a report or sign a rental agreement (about £1 each). New accounts also start with around 10 free welcome credits — see understanding credits.
Can I add a vehicle while I'm in the middle of a report or agreement?
Yes. The vehicle picker on the report and rental-agreement create flows offers the same quick "Add vehicle" option. The vehicle it creates is identical to one added on the Vehicles page — the DVLA and MOT lookup still runs — so you can carry straight on without leaving the flow.
The DVLA details are wrong or out of date — can I fix them?
Yes. Open the vehicle, go to the Details tab and edit any field. You can also refresh the data from DVLA to pull the latest. Colour and fuel are picked from standard DVLA values; transmission, VIN and engine number are yours to fill in, since DVLA doesn't supply them.
What happens if I delete a vehicle?
Deleting a vehicle also deletes every inspection report and rental agreement linked to it — including their photos, signatures and PDF copies — and this can't be undone. You'll be warned before it happens. If a vehicle has signed reports or agreements you need to keep for the record, don't delete it. (Deleting a customer behaves differently — signed agreements and licence checks are kept for audit; see what happens when I delete a customer.)
Who can add and manage vehicles?
Owners, Managers and Inspectors can all add and manage vehicles — it's part of day-to-day operations and doesn't touch billing. See roles explained for who can do what.
Where do the hire rates come from on an agreement?
Per-vehicle figures (daily rate, deposit, excess) come from the vehicle's Rental defaults tab; standard charges and clauses come from your rental agreement template. Both can be adjusted on the individual agreement.
Ready to use the vehicle
Once a vehicle is in your list you can run a walkaround inspection against it, raise a rental agreement, and — when you hire it out — run a driver licence check on the hirer, which is also free.