Vehicle Inspectorate sees more, fads more
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• The Vehicle Inspectorate upped the number of tests and retests carried out last year by 3.3% to 954,000, with brake problems cited as the most common reasons for vehicle failure.
According to the inspectorate's annual report, out this week, the 1987/88 failure rate was 25.0% for vehicles and 18.8% for trailers, compared with 24.2% and 17.8% respectively during 1986/87.
PSV tests and retests bucked the trend with 82,000 checks last year, down 1,000 on 1986/87, and failures up by 2.3%, from 19.9% to 22.2%, Fewer tests and more failures may seem a bad sign, but the PSV statistics are still far healthier than the car and light van sector where 14 million vehicles were assessed last year and 5.7 million failed — a rejection rate of just over 40%, The Vehicle Inspectorate is now semi-privatised as an "executive agency," duty-bound to break even. Last year it made a small "surplus" of 1616,000 on a turnover of 232.7 million, with 84% of its income being generated by commercial vehicle test fees and most of the rest from 0-licence fees.
The inspectorate claims that its test fee increases have been pegged just below the official RPI inflation rate.