Testing: good qualities will be retained
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HELP US REGULATE. That was Transport Under-Secretary Lynda Chalker's message to the conference when she spoke at the business lunch.
The Minister said that the RHA has a vital role to play by being the national representative voice of the hire or reward sector, and indicated that it was this role which helps remove what she conceded are unsatisfactory provisions from the current Transport Bill.
Apart from dealing with this, and the latest developments affecting heavier lorries (see p3), she spoke of the privatisation plans for the heavy goods vehicle test stations, which also are included in the Transport Bill.
The Government was impressed by the respect and esteem in which the present arrangements are held, she said, and this message has come through at RHA senior level and from individual operators.
"Virtually all of you told us how much you valued the impartiality of the scheme, its independence, and the consistency of its standards," said the Minister.
This is a tribute to a scheme which has run only for around 10 years, and lorry safety standards have improved greatly since the mid-1960s, she said. Immediate prohibitions at spot-checks fell from 10 per cent in 1965 to 4.5 per cent in the early 1970s, and delayed prohibitions have fallen from over 33 per cent to about 10 per cent today. "That is still far too many, but we have moved in the right direction," she added.
The Government takes vehicle testing and safety seriously, she said, and very careful consideration has to be given to the
future management of the system. "We have been determined throughout that whatever changes are introduced, safety must still be paramount. In that, think we are at one with the industry."
The system need not be run by the Government, she said, even if the Government still set the standards, and it now accepts the industry's view that the system ought to be sold as a single operating unit. Subject to a final agrement, the Lloyd's Register Vehicle Testing Authority, with industry representatives monitoring it and sitting on its council, will take over next year.
This will be a good system, preserving all the good qualities of the present testing scheme, she claimed. "Ten years from now, I hope we shall be meeting to celebrate a further improvement in the safety record and maintenance standards of your industry, and paying tribute to the influence which the testing scheme has had on that happy progress."