DWTS is live: since 1 October 2026, waste receiving sites in England and Wales must record every load digitally and submit it to DEFRA.
Set up LoadLog for your site, your vehicles, or both
A practical walkthrough from a blank account to a working setup, whether you receive waste, carry it, or do both. Pick your side and follow the steps.
No credit card needed to start. Site accounts get five WTNs a month on the Free plan.
Start the same way
Two steps are the same whichever side you are on. Then the path splits.
Create your account
Sign up with an email address and a password. It takes under two minutes, and you do not need a card to start.
Choose what you manage
Choose Waste site, Carrier, or Waste site and carrier. You can add the other side later, and nothing on the first side changes.
Pick your side
Each path is short, and each one ends with the app doing the work it is meant to do.
You receive waste
Register with DEFRA, add your site, and record your first transfer note.
Site stepsYou carry waste
Add your permit or exemption, your drivers and their numbers, and your vehicles.
Carrier stepsYou do both
Set up the site first, then the carrier side. Your business details carry over.
Both sidesIf you receive waste
Five steps from the account you have just made to your first submitted note. The receiving duty is live in England and Wales. Scotland starts in January 2027, and Northern Ireland is due to follow.
Register with DEFRA
LoadLog links directly to DEFRA's Digital Waste Tracking Service. LoadLog fills in your sandbox test code when you sign up, so you can start testing straight away, and you add your production code once DEFRA has issued it to your organisation. If you have not registered yet, we walk you through it during setup and point you to the GOV.UK registration form.
Enter your production code in LoadLog, verify it, then use the Environment toggle to move between sandbox and production. Your account is connected to the government platform in minutes. See our step-by-step registration guide for the details.
Add your organisation details
Tell LoadLog about your organisation: your environmental permit number, organisation name and address, and a contact for the account. This includes your sandbox and production DEFRA API codes, which connect LoadLog to the Digital Waste Tracking Service.
Invite your team
Add the people who will use LoadLog. Admin users manage the account and settings, operator users record and sign loads, and viewer users get read-only access.
Test in the sandbox
Before you record a real load, run one through DEFRA's sandbox environment. Create a test transfer note, capture the signatures and submit it. This confirms your DEFRA link is working before anything real is at stake.
Go live
Switch to production and start recording real loads. Every completed note submits to DEFRA, generates a PDF record and keeps a full audit trail. You can also save a note as a draft and come back to finish and submit it when you are ready. Once you know which loads come through regularly, save them as templates so the details are filled in before your team starts typing.
Everything else is built in
EWC code lookup, carrier lookup and DEFRA submission all come as standard from the first load you record. You do not need any extra software or accounts. There is also a sample template library of ready-made loads, from scrap metal to food waste, so you are not building every note from scratch. If you already keep your loads in a spreadsheet or a weighbridge system, you can import them by CSV: LoadLog matches your columns, shows a preview of what will be created, and the batch arrives as drafts you can check before submitting. LoadLog can also email your team an activity digest: weekly on the Free plan, and on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule on paid plans.
If you are brand new to DEFRA's service, do not worry. We guide you through registration during setup, and you can test everything in the sandbox before you switch to production.
See LoadLog in action
The video follows the site steps, from creating your account to going live.
If you carry waste
Five steps to a carrier hub that is ready for a roadside stop or an audit. You do not connect to DEFRA for this: recording and submitting movements digitally is planned for October 2027, and the hub is the record until then.
Add your permit or exemption
Open Carrier hub, then Permit or exemption, and click Add a registration. Type the number, or search by business name or company number: LoadLog checks the four public registers and fills in the nation, the type, the tier and the dates from the match. The registers refresh every night, and the record shows when it was last checked.
England is the nation where registration becomes a permit. From 22 July 2027 a registration converts to a permit or a registered exemption, most of them on the day after their own expiry date, so the change reaches each business at a different time. The record shows the conversion date and the date to apply by, and the reminders follow those dates. Attach the certificate or notice to the record, so the inspection pack can include it.
Add a competence holder
Competence is the technical certificate behind the business. Open Competence and add a holder: their name, the scheme, the certificate reference, the dates and the certificate itself. The schemes are CIWM (WAMITAB) operator competence, CIWM Controllers and Transporters (CaT), or Other. Choose Other when the certificate comes from a different route, and type its name.
If you applied in the first year and the certificate has not arrived, tick In the first-year window. The record then gives you until 22 July 2028 and says why, instead of showing an overdue certificate.
Add your drivers and their numbers
Every driver needs a number from 22 July 2027, and the hub is the record of who has which. Open Drivers and add a driver: their name, their licence expiry and their number. LoadLog allocates the next number, or you can type one you already use. A number is never reused, even after a driver leaves, so the list stays a true record.
Add a CPC card, tachograph card or ADR certificate against the driver, with its expiry. The hub flags a document 30 days before it lapses. Roadside CSV gives the cab a list of names and numbers, and the full driver register adds licence expiry and a document summary for the office.
Add your vehicles
Type the plate and click Look up. LoadLog reads DVSA's MOT history service and fills in the make, model, first registration and MOT expiry, and keeps the test history, mileage and defects on the vehicle's record. Insurance is entered by hand, because there is no public register for it: add the expiry date and attach the certificate to the vehicle in All documents.
Set your reminders and download the inspection pack
Reminders go to the active administrators on the account at 07:00 UK time. Registration expiry and competence certificates, 30 days before. The date to apply by, four months and three months before. A conversion, 60 days before. Driver documents and vehicle insurance, 30 days before. The two document reminders start switched off: turn them on in Settings, then Email Preferences, then Carrier reminders.
When an inspector or a roadside stop asks, download the inspection pack: one PDF with the permit, the drivers and their numbers, the competence holders and the vehicles. Every export is recorded in the audit log, so you can show when a pack was produced.
The carrier hub is free for the accounts that use it, and it stays free for them. Paid carrier plans arrive in 2027, ahead of the planned October 2027 duty, and are built around submitting carrier WTNs. They will be announced nearer the time, with a discount for accounts already using the hub.
A carrier's duty to record and submit movements digitally is planned for October 2027. The regulations for that phase have not been laid, so treat the date as the one to prepare for. Everything in the hub works today.
If you do both
If you chose Waste site and carrier at signup, both sides are already on. Do the site steps first, because the receiving duty is live now, then work through the carrier steps.
The two records are separate where it matters. The site's environmental permit number stays on the site, and the carrier registration goes in the carrier hub. Your organisation name, address and contact details are shared, so you enter them once.
If you signed up as a waste site and need the carrier side later, open Settings, then Organisation, choose Waste site and carrier under What do you want to manage?, and click Add the carrier side. Your sites, plan and records are untouched.
What you will need before you start
Have these to hand, and setup takes minutes rather than an afternoon.
If you receive waste
- ✓ An email address for the account administrator
- ✓ Your DEFRA API codes from the Digital Waste Tracking Service (your sandbox code is filled in for you when you sign up)
- ✓ Your environmental permit number
- ✓ Your organisation details, including address and contact information
- ✓ Email addresses for the team members who will use LoadLog
- ✓ If you have existing records, a spreadsheet export of them (CSV or Excel) to import after setup
If you carry waste
- ✓ Your carrier registration number, or your permit or exemption number
- ✓ The competence certificate, or the date you expect it
- ✓ Driver names, licence expiry dates and any numbers you already use
- ✓ Vehicle registrations, plus makes and models if you have them
- ✓ Insurance expiry dates and the certificates
- ✓ Email addresses for the team members who will use LoadLog
Start free, and be ready from day one
Every waste receiving site in England and Wales has had to record its loads digitally since 1 October 2026. Carriers get the compliance hub free while the movement duty is still to come. Scotland and Northern Ireland start in January 2027: setup pages for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
Ready to get started?
Set up your account in minutes. Choose your side at signup, and add the other one later if you need it.
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