Batch Entering VINs on the RAV (ROVER)

Purpose

Every ROLL’N moped must be on the Register of Approved Vehicles (RAV) before it is supplied to anyone — before it goes to a dealer, a customer, or gets registered. A container lands with 50 units, so we enter them as one batch file in ROVER rather than typing 50 records by hand. This procedure makes sure every VIN in the container gets entered exactly once, with the VIN spelled exactly as it appears on the bike.

Our approval details

The submission file has 24 columns, but only one of them changes from row to row: the VIN. Everything else is the same for every unit in the shipment, so you fill the first row and copy it down.

These are our values:

Column	Value
Approval Number	VTA-064998
Vehicle Category Code	LC
Name of Holder of Approval	E-VOLVE MOPEDS PTY LTD
Make	E VOLVE MOPEDS
Model	ROLL'N Freedom
Tare (kg)	197
Power (kW)	4.7
Seating Capacity	1
Entry Pathway	TYPE APPROVAL - STANDARD
Authorised by Name	E-VOLVE MOPEDS PTY LTD
Authorised by Number	RAV002798
Motive Power	EV

Left blank for our bikes: GVM / ATM (kg), GTM (kg), Safer Freight Vehicle, Gross Combination Mass (kg), Road Train, B Double, NVES Vehicle Type, Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Mass In Running Order, Rated Towing Capacity. (The NVES columns cover passenger and light commercial vehicles, not motorcycles.)

Changes per shipment: VIN (per unit) and Build Date (mm/yyyy) (per batch, from the supplier’s build data).

These values are the Freedom’s, under approval VTA-064998. Don’t reuse this file or these details for any other model.

Procedure

1. Take the VIN list from the supplier’s shipment pack (the VIN/engine list in the supplier Excel), not from an email thread. Check the number of VINs equals the number of units on the packing list.
2. Confirm every VIN on that list belongs to a unit we have actually received. If a VIN appears in the supplier pack but not in the units landed, take it out — it goes in a later batch.
3. Log in to ROVER at rover.infrastructure.gov.au and go to RAV → Submit entry File. Download the CSV template from that screen — the same screen you’ll upload the finished file back to. Download a fresh template every time. Do not reuse last shipment’s file — the columns change (the NVES columns were added to it), and an old template can fail validation for every row.
4. Fill in row 1 using the approval details table above, then copy that row down to one row per unit. Keep the header row exactly as downloaded.
5. Paste the VINs into the VIN column. VINs are 17 characters, uppercase, no spaces (ours start SLFPA4NB…). VINs never contain the letters I, O or Q — if you see one, it’s a misread character, go back to the source document.
6. Set Build Date (mm/yyyy) for the shipment — the build month from the supplier’s data, e.g. 06/2026. Format the column as text or as a mm/yyyy number format before typing. Excel will otherwise turn it into a date and display it as Jun-26, which is not the format the file needs.
7. Save as CSV UTF-8. One file holds up to 2,000 records, so a container is always a single file. Name it RAV-<shipment number>-<YYYY-MM-DD>.csv.
8. Open the saved CSV in a plain text editor and eyeball the first two lines — this is the only way to see what was actually written, especially the build date.
9. Check the VINs against the supplier list with a second pair of eyes, or paste both lists into a spreadsheet and compare. A wrong VIN entered on the RAV cannot be edited normally — it needs a separate correction request, so it’s much cheaper to catch it here.
10. Back in ROVER, go to RAV → Submit entry File → Upload File, attach the saved CSV and submit.
11. Wait for the validation result. ROVER validates each row against our approval details and reports which rows passed and which failed.
12. If rows fail, correct only the failed rows in a new file and submit that file. Never resubmit the whole batch — the accepted rows are already entered and resubmitting them creates duplicate entries and duplicate fees.
13. When everything is accepted, spot-check three VINs (first, middle, last) in the RAV public search and confirm they come back as entered.
14. Save the submitted CSV and the ROVER confirmation into the shipment’s folder in SharePoint.
15. Mark each VIN on the shipment’s VIN list as RAV-entered, with the date. A unit that isn’t marked RAV-entered must not be released to a dealer or customer.

Responsibilities

Who	Does what
Bodhi	Owns the approval details, submits the file in ROVER, approves any correction request
Ops / admin	Builds the CSV from the supplier pack, cross-checks the VINs, files the confirmation, marks the VINs as entered
Whoever releases stock	Checks the unit is marked RAV-entered before it leaves the warehouse

Notes

• Timing. Do the batch as soon as the VIN list is confirmed — ideally while the container is still in transit, not when a bike sells. Entry must be complete before first supply, and a rejected batch can take a few days to sort out.
• Fees. There is a RAV entry fee per vehicle, invoiced to the RAV organisation on the submission (RAV002798). A duplicate submission means paying twice, which is the main reason step 12 says “failed rows only”.
• Corrections. If a VIN, approval number or entry pathway was entered wrong, it’s fixed with the department’s bulk RAV amendment template, not by entering the vehicle again. As of ROVER Release 11 the key-field and non-key-field templates are combined into one file.
• Colour is not a RAV field. A container with seven colour variants is still one straight block of rows — only the VIN differs.
• Batteries and accessories are not road vehicles and never appear in a RAV submission. Only the mopeds.
• Never enter a VIN for a unit we haven’t physically received. If a container is short, remove those VINs from the file and enter them when the units actually arrive.
• Always take the template from ROVER (RAV → Submit entry File → CSV template), never a saved copy on the drive.
• The shipment’s VIN list has to be final before you start — this procedure is only as good as the list it’s built from.