How the score is worked out
The check has ten questions. Each answer carries a value between 0 and 1. The score is the sum of each question's weight multiplied by the value of the answer given, rounded to a whole number. The weights add to 100, so the highest possible score is 100.
The two context questions — state and fleet size — are not scored. They are used only to shape the notes shown with your result.
The score measures one thing: how well a business could evidence its vehicle hygiene practice if it were questioned. It is not a determination of legal compliance and it has not been verified against your records.
Bands
- 0–39 — Exposed
- 40–64 — Developing
- 65–84 — Solid
- 85–100 — Defensible
Questions, weights and values
When one of your vehicles enters a client's property, what goes with it as proof it was cleaned?
Proof at entry · weight 10
- 0.00 — Nothing — we clean it, but nothing travels with the vehicle
- 0.33 — The driver can say when and where it was washed
- 0.67 — A paper certificate or form kept in the vehicle
- 1.00 — A digital record the client can check
Why it is weighted this way: Evidence that travels with the vehicle is what a landholder can act on at the gate; cleaning without a travelling record leaves nothing behind.
Who signs off that a vehicle is clean, and what backs that sign-off?
Who signs off · weight 10
- 0.00 — No one formally signs it off; the vehicle is just declared clean
- 0.33 — The person signing it off has been shown how in-house, with no formal certification
- 0.67 — The person signing it off has recognised vehicle hygiene certification training
- 1.00 — The person signing it off has recognised certification training, and self-declarations are recorded as such
Why it is weighted this way: The question is not whether the signer is the driver or someone else. What matters is whether the person signing off has appropriate vehicle hygiene certification training, and whether self-declarations are recorded as such.
Can the person signing off produce current evidence of their vehicle hygiene certification training?
Certification evidence · weight 8
- 0.00 — No, or we haven't looked into it
- 0.33 — Some can, and we're not sure whose is current
- 0.67 — Most can, including the people who sign off most often, and we hold copies
- 1.00 — Everyone who signs off — current, and we can produce the evidence
Why it is weighted this way: Holding the training is one thing; being able to show it is current is what turns a claim into something a client can check.
Are photographs of the inspection kept with the record?
Photographic evidence · weight 12
- 0.00 — No photos are taken
- 0.33 — Sometimes, on someone's phone
- 0.67 — Usually, and they're stored somewhere separate from the record
- 1.00 — Always, attached to the record itself
Why it is weighted this way: Photos attached to the record are the difference between a claim about a vehicle's condition and a picture of it.
If a landholder at the gate wanted to check the certificate was genuine and still current, could they?
Verification at the gate · weight 14
- 0.00 — No
- 0.33 — They'd have to ring our office
- 0.67 — We could email or message it to them
- 1.00 — They can check it themselves, on the spot, without needing an account
Why it is weighted this way: Weighted highest with retrieval, because a record nobody can check at the moment of access does not settle the question it exists to settle.
Could you produce the hygiene record for one specific vehicle, on one specific day, three years ago — within the hour?
Retrieval after three years · weight 14
- 0.00 — No
- 0.33 — Maybe, and it would take days
- 0.67 — Yes, if the paperwork was filed properly
- 1.00 — Yes, in a couple of minutes
Why it is weighted this way: Disputes surface long after the movement; a record that cannot be found quickly, years later, does not function as evidence.
Where do your hygiene records actually live?
Where records live · weight 10
- 0.00 — On drivers' phones, or in the ute
- 0.33 — Paper, in the office somewhere
- 0.67 — A spreadsheet or shared drive
- 1.00 — A system that keeps a dated, tamper-evident trail
Why it is weighted this way: Where records are held determines whether they survive staff turnover, lost phones and time — and whether their dates can be relied on.
Before moving plant between sites, do you check whether either site sits inside a fire ant biosecurity zone?
Fire ant zone check · weight 8
- 0.00 — We didn't know that applied to us
- 0.33 — We're aware of it but don't check
- 0.67 — We check occasionally, or for big moves
- 1.00 — We check before each movement and record what we did
Why it is weighted this way: Zone boundaries are remapped on their own schedule, so the practice being measured is checking and recording per movement, not knowing the map.
When a vehicle moves from one property to another in the same day, what happens?
Moving between properties · weight 8
- 0.00 — Nothing in particular
- 0.33 — We wash it if it looks dirty
- 0.67 — We wash and re-certify when the client asks for it
- 1.00 — We wash, re-certify and record it every time
Why it is weighted this way: Same-day property-to-property movement is where records most often go missing, because there is no natural pause in which to make one.
If a landholder said your vehicle brought weeds onto their place, what would you put in front of them?
Evidence in a dispute · weight 6
- 0.00 — Nothing
- 0.33 — The driver's account of it
- 0.67 — Paperwork, once we found it
- 1.00 — A dated record with photos, in minutes
Why it is weighted this way: Weighted lowest because it largely restates the questions above; it is included as a check that the other answers hold together in practice.
How the improvement plan is worked out
For every question not answered at the top option, the points still available are the question's weight multiplied by one minus the value of the answer given. Each suggestion is the step from the answer given to the next option up — never the leap to the top.
Each suggestion carries an effort cost. Suggestions are ranked by the points available divided by that cost, highest first. Ties break toward the lower effort cost, then toward the higher question weight. The first three are shown as "Start here"; the rest follow, and no more than eight are shown in total.
Effort bands
- 1 — Today
- 2 — This week
- 3 — This month
- 5 — A bigger piece of work
The projection
The projected score is the current score plus the points available on the three "Start here" items, rounded to a whole number and mapped to the same bands above. It is arithmetic on self-reported answers, not a measurement. Where the arithmetic would carry a result from the lowest band straight into the highest, the projection is held at Solid and the rest is described as depending on changes this check cannot see.
The full suggestion library
q1 · from 0.00 · effort 1 (Today)
Put one thing in the vehicle that travels with it — a dated wash sheet with the rego and a signature is enough to start.
A vehicle that arrives carrying nothing has no starting point in a disagreement.
q1 · from 0.33 · effort 2 (This week)
Write it down at the wash bay. Whatever the driver would tell someone at the gate, capture it at the time — not from memory a fortnight later.
Recollection is the weakest form of evidence and it degrades fast.
q1 · from 0.67 · effort 3 (This month)
Make the record something the client can look at without needing your paper in their hand.
Paper only works while the person holding it is standing in front of you.
q2 · from 0.00 · effort 1 (Today)
Stop drivers signing their own. Have a second person sign it, even informally, from this week.
A self-signed record is the first thing anyone challenges.
q2 · from 0.33 · effort 2 (This week)
Name one or two people as your inspectors instead of whoever happens to be standing there.
A named inspector is a person who can be asked what they saw. “Someone on the crew” is not.
q2 · from 0.67 · effort 5 (A bigger piece of work)
For your highest-risk client properties, arrange inspection by someone independent of the vehicle's operator.
Independence is what separates a record that is believed from one that is argued about.
q3 · from 0.00 · effort 2 (This week)
Find out what your two largest clients actually require. Some resource operators specify a nationally recognised unit; most landholders specify nothing.
You may be over-investing here, or about to be caught short. Worth ten minutes to know which.
q3 · from 0.33 · effort 2 (This week)
Build a one-page list: who inspects, what they hold, when it expires.
“Some of them, we're not sure whose” is the answer that produces a scramble on the day it's asked.
q3 · from 0.67 · effort 3 (This month)
Set a reminder 60 days before each expiry, and store the certificates somewhere a second person can find them.
Competency that lapsed last month is worse than none, because the record says it's current.
q4 · from 0.00 · effort 1 (Today)
Start with three photos at every wash: undercarriage, tray or bin, and the rego plate. A phone camera is fine.
Photographs are the cheapest evidence you will ever collect and the hardest to argue with.
q4 · from 0.33 · effort 2 (This week)
Fix the same three shots every time, so a missing one is obvious rather than invisible.
Inconsistent photos invite the question of what happened on the days there aren't any.
q4 · from 0.67 · effort 3 (This month)
Attach the photos to the record itself rather than a separate folder or camera roll.
A photo that can't be tied to a specific vehicle on a specific day proves very little.
q5 · from 0.00 · effort 1 (Today)
Make sure whatever the driver carries shows a date, the rego, and a name and number someone can ring.
A certificate nobody can check is a piece of paper with your word on it.
q5 · from 0.33 · effort 2 (This week)
Give the landholder something they can look at themselves. Ringing the office fails after hours and on weekends — which is when a lot of access happens.
The gate doesn't keep business hours.
q5 · from 0.67 · effort 3 (This month)
Move to something checkable on the spot, without an account and without signal-dependent back-and-forth.
Emailing works right up until the person at the gate has no reception and no patience.
q6 · from 0.00 · effort 1 (Today)
Pick one vehicle and one date from last year and try to find the record now, while nothing is riding on it.
The attempt tells you more about your exposure than any assessment will.
q6 · from 0.33 · effort 2 (This week)
Get the records into one place with a consistent name: date, rego, property.
Days is too slow. A client's lawyer works in hours, and the delay itself reads as an answer.
q6 · from 0.67 · effort 3 (This month)
Remove the person-dependency. “If it was filed properly” is a bet on someone having had a good week two years ago.
Retrieval is the single most-tested thing in a dispute and the most commonly failed.
q7 · from 0.00 · effort 1 (Today)
Get a copy off the drivers' phones weekly, starting this week.
Records on a personal phone leave the business when the driver does, and nobody notices until later.
q7 · from 0.33 · effort 2 (This week)
Photograph or scan the paper as it's created, not in a catch-up pile.
Paper in the office survives right up until the wet season, the move, or the clean-out.
q7 · from 0.67 · effort 3 (This month)
Move to something that keeps a dated trail showing when each record was made and whether it changed.
A spreadsheet can be edited afterwards without leaving a mark, and that is exactly what gets attacked.
q8 · from 0.00 · effort 1 (Today)
Check whether your yard and your main client sites sit inside a fire ant biosecurity zone. Zones are remapped monthly.
Carriers include anything with soil attached. Most fleets are carrying soil most days.
q8 · from 0.33 · effort 2 (This week)
Add the zone check to the pre-move routine so it happens without anyone remembering to do it.
Being aware of a zone and not checking it produces the same record as not knowing at all.
q8 · from 0.67 · effort 3 (This month)
Record what you checked and when — not just that a check happens.
An undocumented check and no check look identical six months later.
q9 · from 0.00 · effort 1 (Today)
Decide a rule for same-day property-to-property movement and tell the crew this week.
This is the highest-risk movement most fleets make and the one least likely to be recorded.
q9 · from 0.33 · effort 2 (This week)
Replace “if it looks dirty” with a fixed rule.
That judgement gets made by a tired person at four in the afternoon, and it gets made generously.
q9 · from 0.67 · effort 3 (This month)
Re-certify and record every time, not only when the client asks.
The movements nobody asked about are the ones with no record at all.
q10 · from 0.00 · effort 1 (Today)
Decide today what you would physically put in front of someone. If the answer is nothing, that is the gap.
This question is the whole check in one line.
q10 · from 0.33 · effort 2 (This week)
Get anything dated into the file. A dated note beats a confident recollection.
A driver's memory two years on is worth very little to anyone assessing it.
q10 · from 0.67 · effort 3 (This month)
Work on time-to-produce, not on more paperwork.
“Once we found it” is the problem being tested, not the quality of the form.
Current as at 9 September 2026.
This check does not provide legal advice and does not create a lawyer–client relationship. It does not assess your compliance with any law. Obtain your own advice about your obligations.