GOOD TIMES FOR COWBOYS
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time c omgi good time coming, arol ems i n g c,, cbkozs a arol ems i n g c,, cbkozs a Mackay 's s words
will have a special meaning for those mis creant hauliers who've been living under
the threat of a court case, only to find that due to "transitional' problems within the Vehicle Inspectorate they've been let off the hook. According to some traffic examiners the problem is less "transitional" and more down to the fact that the VI is pushing ahead with a bitterly opposed programme of office closures that will hit 75% of the VI's legal administration centres. And while the two sides fight over the moral high ground of enforcement, cases against law-breaking bouliers have been dropped because they haven't reached one of the two remaining centres within the specified time. God only knows what kind of message this scrap is sending out to hauliers tempted to stray from the straight and narrow. We know what it must be doing to the morale of the hard-pressed traffic examiners and can only guess at the ammunition it is handing anti-truck campaigners. At the heart of the issue is the DOT's misguided call for a 20% "efficiency gain" within the VI. But efficiency for whom? The VI is already being accused of operating what at best could be called an idiosyncratic weighing policy. In January Commercial Motor reported on a weighing blitz in the Eastern area where thousands of trucks were check weighed.. .but the many of them were weighed at a British Sugar site where the regulation of vehicle loading is already very strict. It came as no surprise that, in the VI's words, prosecutions were "not that high". Now, due to an administrative cock-up, some court cases against errant hauliers will have to fall by the wayside. They call that efficiency?.
nd just to turn the screw on enforcement that bit further, Kent and Oxfordshire county councils are withdrawing from truck weighing checks because they can't afford to run them. No doubt the beleaguered VI will be expected to step into the breach. According to Kent CC: "The fact that there'll be two agencies other than three doing the checks indicates the number of checks will decrease. This will lead to more dangers on our roads." Letting off dodgy hauliers with little more than a warning isn't going to do much good for safety either. Mr Mackay is right. There's a good time coming alright, but it's a good time that will be enjoyed by the rogue hauliers that are such a threat to the law-abiding majority.