A weighbridge verified on a Monday, three shop scales on the Wednesday, a bulk diesel meter the following week. By the time the paperwork is typed up, the first verification on the form may already be ten days old. Under a servicing licence, that matters.
This article explains the 14-day timeframes that apply to servicing licensees, drawing on the National Trade Measurement Regulations 2009 and National Measurement Institute (NMI) guidance. It is a working summary, not legal advice; check the current regulations and NMI guidance for your own licence.
The rule for verification forms
Regulation 2.43 of the National Trade Measurement Regulations 2009 sets out conditions on every servicing licence. One of them, regulation 2.43(16), says that when a servicing licensee or one of its employees verifies a measuring instrument, the licensee must notify NMI in writing, in an approved form, within 14 days after the instrument was verified. The approved forms are Form 6 and Form 6A. NMI’s guide notes that missing this may be a breach of a licence condition.
A form can hold instruments verified on different days, and NMI’s guide says it must reach NMI within 14 days of the earliest verification date on it. The oldest verification sets the deadline. Holding a form open to add one more site is how a form goes late.
Non-verifications have a clock too
Sometimes an instrument is examined or tested and not verified, because it is not of an approved pattern, it is outside the maximum permissible error (MPE) allowed at verification, or it does not comply with the relevant national instrument test procedure. The regulations then require the licensee to notify NMI in writing, in an approved form, within 14 days of finishing the examination or test, and any verification mark on the instrument must be obliterated. The instrument’s controller must also be told in writing straight after the test.
Telling the controller after a verification
The regulations also require written notice to the controller of a verified instrument, in an approved form, within 14 days after verification. Whatever you hand over on the day, it has a deadline of its own.
Test reports for complex instruments
NMI’s guidance says instruments verified under these licence subclasses need a test report sent with the Form 6 or Form 6A, within 14 days of the verification date:
- 5.2 and 5.3: flowmeter-type liquid measuring instruments, for petroleum and other products
- 6.4: weighing instruments over 3 tonnes, classes 3 and 4
- 6.5: belt conveyor weighing instruments
- 6.6: automatic rail weighbridges
- 6.8: wheeled loaders
- 6.9: totalising hopper weighing instruments
- 10.1 and 10.2: liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) dispensers and LPG flowmeters
Test reports can be Excel or PDF files, and they go in the same email as the verification form. Where alcoholic beverage measures are batch tested under subclass 4.3, NMI asks for a histogram of the results within 14 days of testing.
Naming test reports
NMI’s naming convention is the verifier’s registration number, an underscore, then the verification date with full stops: VR-01234_14.10.2026. When there are several reports for the same date, add a number: VR-01234_14.10.2026_1, VR-01234_14.10.2026_2 and so on. A file called “weighbridge test final v2” is one someone has to match up by hand.
Keep the copies
Licensees must keep a copy of each of these notifications for at least three years, and give a copy to an inspector within 14 days if asked for it. A sent-items folder in one person’s mailbox is a fragile way to meet that.
Other 14-day clocks on a licence
- Verifier changes. NMI asks licensees to send its verifier registration and deregistration form within 14 days of someone becoming a verifier, leaving, or changing their name, address or contact details.
- Reference standards. Changes such as replacement, reverification, calibration or decommissioning are notified to NMI within 14 days, with your latest standards register. See Regulation 13 certificates.
Where the days go
The fourteen days rarely go on the test. They go on the gap between the van and the office: job sheets in a glovebox, a test report saved on a laptop that is still on a mine site, a form waiting for Friday because Friday is paperwork day.
How OpsChase keeps the clock in view
In OpsChase for trade measurement verifiers, every verification starts a countdown from its date. A lodgement board shows what is due, what is overdue and what has been sent, so the earliest date on each form is the one you see. Verifiers record tests on site with or without signal, and the record syncs when the device is back in range.
When a form is ready, you export a Form 6 or Form 6A in the NMI Excel template layout, with test reports for the subclasses above already named VR-XXXXX_DD.MM.YYYY_n and ready to attach to the same email. Every form, report and certificate is kept against the instrument for at least three years, so an inspector’s request becomes a search, not a hunt. OpsChase is independent software; lodgement still goes to NMI by email, as it does now, and NMI does not endorse OpsChase.
Where to start
Look at your last month of forms and count the days from the earliest verification on each one to the email. If the answer is often more than ten, start with the verifiers doing complex instruments, where a late test report is most likely, then bring everyone else onto the same board.
Check the form mistakes that send a Form 6 back, see pricing or book a demo.