What happens, in the order it happens.
Three screens you'll use once, one you'll use every day, and what the VCA does with the result.
Set up once
Company details and your vehicle models. Ten minutes.
Enter the vehicle
Pick the model, type the VIN and the numbers.
Check and sign
Validated against the VCA schema, then digitally signed.
Upload to the VCA
Through the portal, under your own account.
Your company
This goes into every file, so it's filled in once and left alone.
- Name and address
- Your type-approval number and the date it was granted
- Which scheme it sits under — GB unlimited, medium series, and so on
- Who signs certificates
Worth checking first. If your approval is national small series (NSSTA), you're exempt from eCoC entirely and can carry on with paper. Whoever holds your type-approval file will know.
Vehicle models
Everything that's the same for every vehicle of a kind, saved once.
- Type, variant and version
- Category and bodywork code
- Your usual wording
The dropdowns are populated from the VCA's own code lists, so you can't pick something the schema rejects.
The form
Pick the model, type the VIN, the build date, and the dimensions and masses off your build sheet. Before anything is made, it checks that:
- The VIN is 17 characters of capitals and digits
- Every measurement is a whole number within the schema's limits
- The axle masses add up to the mass in running order
- Dates are in order
- You haven't already made a file for this VIN
If something's wrong it names the box. Then the file is signed and saved.
Signing
The VCA reject any file without a digital signature.
- The signature comes from a certificate issued to your company — an electronic seal
- Included with CoC AutoDocs: we hold the seal for you with a provider on the UK trusted list. Nothing to buy, install or renew
- Files are signed in the format the VCA portal accepts, a standard XMLDSig signature; XAdES is ready for when the VCA switch it on
- A built-in test key lets you upload to the VCA's test system today, while the provider is still verifying your company
Upload
You upload to the VCA eCoC portal under your own manufacturer account, singly or in batches of up to 100.
- The VCA don't allow third parties to submit on your behalf
- CoC AutoDocs never touches your VCA account
History
Every file your company has made, with who made it and when.
- Mark each one uploaded, then accepted or rejected
- “Correct and reissue” loads the old details. The new file goes out with the next version number and the old one is marked superseded
- Export the lot as a spreadsheet for Conformity of Production records
What the VCA actually check
Three things. CoC AutoDocs handles the first two before you ever upload; the version number handles the third.
The file matches their schema
Checked against the VCA's published IVI schema before the file exists, so errors are named before you upload rather than after.
A signature is present
Sealed in your company's name, in the XMLDSig format the VCA portal accepts. They've said they're not yet verifying the certificate behind the signature.
It isn't a duplicate VIN and version
Every reissue carries the next version number, so a correction is never mistaken for a duplicate.