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VI promises 'seamless service'
Page 15
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• by Dominic Perry The Vehicle Inspectorate claims its merger with the Traffic Area Network at the start of April will offer a better and more accessible service to hauliers.
The new licensing and enforcement body, to be called the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA), will initially run as two separate divisions under the same chief executive, says spokeswoman Miranda Roberts. However, she stresses that Traffic Commissioners will retain their Independence: "If they didn't go down this path. then they would be seen as judge and jury," she adds.
The merger is designed to offer hauliers a better, more seamless service, she says, which will "make life easier for them and make it easier for them to comply [with the !awl". But she adds that this "will take some time to happen". 1n the meantime, the VI is pressing ahead with two highprofile enforcement initiatives—the introduction of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) and giving Vi officers the power to stop vehicles without the need for a police presence. Roberts says the latter, to be introduced in May or June this year, will "be a lot better for us—we won't have to cancel roadside checks anymore because we don't have police support".
On-line licensing should also be up and running by the summer as part of the full roll-out of TAN 21 or 'operator self service' as It Is now known, followed by the introduction of on-the-spot fines for hauliers.
There has been the suggestion in some quarters that the merging of the two agencies is a precursor to bringing other agencies within the Department for Transport's DVO Taskforce—the DSA, OVLA, VGA (Vehicle Certification Agency) and VOSA—under one roof. So far, the VI has denied this claim. However, the Vi says It remain the dark over its role In enforcing Working Time Directive and is awal government guidance on the Issue.
• More than 130 trucks have t impounded by the VI since its inception year, with only 10 returned to operator although more have gone back to lea companies. The worst offenders are E folding firms and tipper operators,