VI's tack crackdown will cut weight checks
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111 The Vehicle Inspectorate will launch a crackdown on drivers' hours and tachograph enforcement next month. But to free manpower for the campaign the VI will be forced to reduce the number of weight checks.
In what the Inspectorate describes as a "redeployment of resources", its team of 200 traffic exmainers will be briefed to increase the effort that is devoted to drivers' hours and tacho checks by nearly 70%, to a total of 35 man-years per year. As a result the number of weight checks they carry outwill have to be reduced from the current total of 130,000 to 115,000 a year.
The switch in enforcement priority was announced by roads and traffic minister Kenneth Carlisle in Parliament this week. Breaches of drivers' hours and tachographs "have serious implications for road safety", he said. "We take a grave view of those who seek to circumvent these rules."
Specific areas of the country will be targetted for the increased drivers' hours enforcement, says Vehicle Inspectorate deputy chief executive and operations director Julian David. Target areas will be selected at a local level following talks between enforcment managers and Traffic Commissioners.