# GB Vehicle Operator Licence & Fleet Growth Signals (`starshaped_bullsnake/gb-vehicle-operator-licence-fleet-growth-signals`) Actor

Detect decision-useful changes in official GB vehicle operator licence data between runs, including fleet authority growth, status changes, and operating centre changes.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/starshaped\_bullsnake/gb-vehicle-operator-licence-fleet-growth-signals.md
- **Developed by:** [Starshape Tools](https://apify.com/starshaped_bullsnake) (community)
- **Categories:** Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $20.00 / 1,000 vehicle operator change signals

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## GB Vehicle Operator Licence & Fleet Growth Signals

Detect what changed in official Great Britain vehicle operator licence data since your previous successful run.

This Actor is designed for repeat monitoring. It is **not** a generic operator-directory scraper. It keeps a persistent snapshot of the official public register and emits one Dataset record per meaningful change.

### What this Actor does

On each run the Actor downloads the official Traffic Commissioners / DVSA bulk CSV files, normalizes duplicate licence rows, compares the current register with the previous successful snapshot, writes change signals to the Dataset, and only then commits the new snapshot.

The most commercially useful signal is `VEHICLE_AUTHORITY_INCREASED`, for example:

`Fleet authority increased from 8 to 20 vehicles`

That can be useful as a fleet-growth trigger for commercial vehicle sales, telematics, insurance, fuel / charging, maintenance, tyres, logistics suppliers, and market intelligence.

### Who it is for

- commercial vehicle and trailer suppliers
- fleet service and telematics providers
- fleet insurance teams
- fuel and charging providers
- maintenance and tyre suppliers
- logistics-sector sales teams
- fleet market intelligence teams

### Official data source

The Actor uses the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency / Traffic Commissioners **goods and public service vehicle operator licence records** published through the UK government data catalogue. The source is a set of public CSV files covering Great Britain and is described by the publisher as updated weekly, every Sunday.

Source: https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/2a67d1ee-8f1b-43a3-8bc6-e8772d162a3c/traffic-commissioners-goods-and-public-service-vehicle-operator-licence-records

The government catalogue marks the dataset as available under the **UK Open Government Licence (OGL) v3.0**. Review the source and OGL terms for your use case.

No proxy, browser, Playwright, or Puppeteer is used.

### Signal types

Implemented signals:

- `NEW_OPERATOR`
- `OPERATOR_REMOVED`
- `LICENCE_STATUS_CHANGED`
- `VEHICLE_AUTHORITY_INCREASED`
- `VEHICLE_AUTHORITY_DECREASED`
- `TRAILER_AUTHORITY_INCREASED`
- `TRAILER_AUTHORITY_DECREASED`
- `OPERATING_CENTRE_ADDED`
- `OPERATING_CENTRE_REMOVED`
- `LICENCE_TYPE_CHANGED`
- `OPERATOR_NAME_CHANGED`
- `COMPANY_NUMBER_CHANGED`
- `ADDRESS_CHANGED`

The official licence number is the primary entity key. Operator names are never used as the identity key.

### First-run baseline behavior

The first successful run creates a baseline snapshot and emits **zero change signals**. Existing operators are not emitted as `NEW_OPERATOR`.

Expected sequence:

1. first run: baseline, 0 signals
2. same source again: 0 signals
3. source changed: relevant signals
4. same changed source again: 0 signals

Set `baselineOnly: true` to deliberately refresh the baseline without emitting differences.

### Example input

```json
{
  "mode": "live",
  "signalTypes": ["VEHICLE_AUTHORITY_INCREASED", "LICENCE_STATUS_CHANGED"],
  "postcodePrefixes": ["B", "CV"],
  "minVehicleIncrease": 5,
  "maxItems": 500
}
```

For a first-run demonstration that produces representative change records without reading or changing the production snapshot, use `{ "mode": "sample" }`. This is also the Store example run.

Available filters include `signalTypes`, `licenceStatuses`, `licenceTypes`, `postcodePrefixes`, `companyNumbers`, and `licenceNumbers`.

`maxItems` limits Dataset output only. The Actor still downloads, validates, normalizes, and snapshots the complete official source so that later runs do not create false changes.

### Example output

```json
{
  "signalType": "VEHICLE_AUTHORITY_INCREASED",
  "severity": "HIGH",
  "detectedAt": "2026-09-13T00:00:00.000Z",
  "licenceNumber": "OK1234567",
  "operatorName": "EXAMPLE LOGISTICS LIMITED",
  "companyNumber": "01234567",
  "licenceStatus": "lsts_valid",
  "licenceType": "Standard National",
  "operatingCentre": "EXAMPLE DEPOT ...",
  "postcode": "AB1 2CD",
  "previousValue": 8,
  "currentValue": 20,
  "previousVehicleAuthority": 8,
  "currentVehicleAuthority": 20,
  "previousTrailerAuthority": 2,
  "currentTrailerAuthority": 2,
  "signalSummary": "Fleet authority increased from 8 to 20 vehicles",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/2a67d1ee-8f1b-43a3-8bc6-e8772d162a3c/traffic-commissioners-goods-and-public-service-vehicle-operator-licence-records"
}
```

### Severity

`HIGH` is used for material fleet-authority changes, operator removal, and serious status changes such as suspended / revoked / cancelled / curtailed states when those values appear in the source. Smaller fleet changes and operating-centre changes are generally `MEDIUM`. Minor metadata changes are `LOW`.

Severity is a deterministic prioritization aid, not a predictive risk score.

### Scheduling recommendation

Because the official register is published weekly, schedule the Actor weekly after the Sunday source refresh. More frequent runs are safe but will usually produce no new signals until the official source changes.

### Data freshness

Freshness is limited by the official DVSA / Traffic Commissioners publication schedule. The Actor does not claim real-time changes or instant alerts.

### Snapshot safety and idempotency

The persistent snapshot is stored separately from Dataset output. Processing order is:

`fetch → normalize → validate → diff → Dataset output → summary → snapshot commit`

The snapshot is not updated when a source request fails, parsing fails, required source fields disappear, a stored snapshot is incompatible, the current or regional source count collapses implausibly, or Dataset/summary output fails.

The snapshot is gzip-compressed before it is stored. Re-running against an unchanged official source emits no duplicate signals.

### Known limitations

- The Actor can only detect changes represented in the official bulk CSV files.
- Operating centres are identified by normalized official address text because the public CSV does not expose a separate stable operating-centre ID in the fields used here.
- Cosmetic address/name formatting is normalized to reduce false positives, but substantive official text changes can still create metadata signals.
- `OPERATOR_REMOVED` means a licence disappeared from the official weekly bulk register; it does not infer why.
- The Actor does not predict sales intent, business risk, or future fleet growth.

### Compute / storage behavior

Each run downloads all regional official CSV files so the comparison snapshot remains complete. Filters and `maxItems` affect output only, not source ingestion or snapshot completeness.

A named Apify Key-value Store persists the compressed normalized snapshot across runs. The default Dataset contains only emitted change signals. The run's default Key-value Store receives an `OUTPUT` summary with current/previous entity counts, signal counts, mode, warnings, and snapshot status.

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

Use live for official DVSA data, or sample for a deterministic demonstration that never accesses the production snapshot.

## `signalTypes` (type: `array`):

Optional signal-type filter. The persistent snapshot always contains the full official source.

## `licenceStatuses` (type: `array`):

Only emit signals whose current licence status matches one of these values.

## `licenceTypes` (type: `array`):

Only emit signals whose current licence type matches one of these values.

## `postcodePrefixes` (type: `array`):

Only emit signals for postcodes beginning with one of these prefixes.

## `companyNumbers` (type: `array`):

Only emit signals for these Companies House numbers.

## `licenceNumbers` (type: `array`):

Only emit signals for these official operator licence numbers.

## `minVehicleIncrease` (type: `integer`):

Minimum absolute increase required for VEHICLE\_AUTHORITY\_INCREASED output.

## `minVehicleDecrease` (type: `integer`):

Minimum absolute decrease required for VEHICLE\_AUTHORITY\_DECREASED output.

## `baselineOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Refresh the complete snapshot without emitting change signals.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Limits Dataset output only. It never truncates the source snapshot.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "live",
  "minVehicleIncrease": 1,
  "minVehicleDecrease": 1,
  "baselineOnly": false,
  "maxItems": 1000
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `OUTPUT` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("starshaped_bullsnake/gb-vehicle-operator-licence-fleet-growth-signals").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("starshaped_bullsnake/gb-vehicle-operator-licence-fleet-growth-signals").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call starshaped_bullsnake/gb-vehicle-operator-licence-fleet-growth-signals --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,starshaped_bullsnake/gb-vehicle-operator-licence-fleet-growth-signals"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/2eCF3j6ihCHfTeYIk/builds/z1MA9vQgzoLDZgAUg/openapi.json