UK fleet compliance calendar 2026/27
A year-at-a-glance reference for UK fleet operators. The dates that move tax bills, MOT slots and recovery options, plate-change months, the 1 April uplift, bank-holiday closures, and the months when garage capacity is at its tightest. Use it to schedule renewals into quiet weeks instead of competing for slots in March and September.
MOT volume is bimodal, plan around it
Approximate share of annual MOTs done each month, drawn from DVSA's MOT testing data series. The two peaks line up with three-year-old plate-change cohorts (March / September). Quiet months are the opposite, January and the early summer.
Operationally: book autumn MOTs in July, spring MOTs in January. A van that misses its slot in a peak month often loses two to three working days waiting for the next opening at a trusted garage.
The year, month by month
Twelve months of dates that move bills, fines or workshop bookings. Bank holidays are England & Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland vary on one or two days each year, check your local schedule for vehicles based outside England.
April 2026
May 2026
June 2026
July 2026
August 2026
September 2026
October 2026
November 2026
December 2026
January 2027
February 2027
March 2027
Regulatory change Plate-change month Bank holiday / closure Fleet operator's note
Quarterly operator's checklist
If you do nothing else, do these four checks each quarter. They catch most of the issues that turn into parked vans, late fines or insurance disputes.
Apr–Jun
- Confirm every vehicle's tax has rolled onto the new VED rate after 1 April.
- Update insurance renewal dates for any policies renewed in April–June.
- Review service intervals for any vans hitting their first MOT in September.
- Verify reminder recipient emails are current after any staff or provider change.
Jul–Sep
- Book September MOT slots in July before plate-change rush.
- Run a SORN audit, any vehicles parked over winter should be filed before tax renewal date.
- Sweep the dashboard for vehicles with MOT due in September or October, pre-test inspection now is much cheaper than re-test later.
Oct–Dec
- Check insurance renewals; many policies cluster around the financial year-end.
- Confirm Christmas / Boxing Day bank holiday cover with any garage you regularly use.
- Generate a CSV export of your fleet for year-end accounting and submit to your accountant.
Jan–Mar
- Use January's quiet capacity to clear any deferred MOT bookings.
- Pre-book March MOTs in January or February.
- Plan tax renewals to land before 31 March if you'd rather lock in 26/27 rates.
- Run a fleet-wide reg audit: confirm DVLA records (V5C keeper, address, fuel type) match your internal record for every vehicle.
What this guide covers
This calendar focuses on regulatory and operational fleet dates. Keep these separate calendars alongside it:
- A list of HMRC corporation-tax filing dates. Those depend on your year-end. Your accountant has a better calendar.
- A list of DVLA driving-licence renewal dates. Those run per individual driver, not per fleet.
- An ULEZ / Clean Air Zone schedule. Those are city-specific and we'd duplicate Transport for London / Birmingham CAZ pages without adding anything. Use the gov.uk: Check a CAZ charge tool.
- A bank holiday calendar for the whole UK. Scotland and Northern Ireland diverge on a handful of dates. gov.uk: UK bank holidays covers all three jurisdictions.
Stop tracking compliance dates by hand
Fleetkeep reminders cover every vehicle: MOT (DVSA), road tax (DVLA), plus insurance and service dates you supply. Email at 60, 30, 14 and 7 days before each due date.
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