Bottomley blasts truck maintenance skimpers
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• Operators who skimp on effective maintenance of their vehicle fleets are "not only endangering the life of the vehicle driver but also the public at large", claims roads and traffic minister Peter Bottomley.
Commenting on the latest Vehicle Inspectorate annual report — revealed exclusively in Commercial Motor last week — Bottomley reports: "Far too many vehicles are still badly maintained, and a badly maintained vehicle is a menace to life and limb."
LI The Freight Transport Association is calling on the Government to take a tough line against those who fail to maintain their trucks properly.
This follows a detailed survey on annual test HGV failures based on the test results of 1,735 of its members chosen at random. The average fleet size was 13 vehicles, "so they were not just big boys with very efficient maintenance systems", says the FTA.
In its analysis of test failures during the 12 months to the end of July 1987, the FTA found that of the 23,184 vehicles tested only 6.5% failed — significantly below the overall national average.
According to the FM: "Those members in the survey who were in the FTA vehicle inspection service achieved even better results. The 6.5% failure rate indicates that there must be many operators who are not FTA members who will have failure rates well above the 22.5% given in the DTp annual report."
The association asserts that it is concerned "not only about the safety of goods vehicles on the road, but also about the bad name that those operators who do not have good maintenance or vehicle inspection systems, give to the industry."