Operators an akers to Join Ministry in Regulations Revisions
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nPERATOR and manufacturer asso
• -/ ciations, together with motoring and road safety bodies, have been invited by the Minister of Transport to nominate representatives for two working parties which Are to review the Construction and Use and Vehicle Lighting Regulations. This move follows the precedent established with the working party on vehicle braking, which has drawn up requirements to suit the amended Construction and Use Regulations covering higherrated and weight-plated vehicles.
The C. and U. Regulations were consolidated in 1963 and the Lighting Regulations in 1964 with little change of actual content, but in the knowledge that revision of the regulations themselves might be undertaken later. Now several C. and U. items are going through the normal periodical revision process, and others which may need consideration are smoke emission, mudflaps, worn tyres, rear guards on lorries, windscreen wipers and washers, The Ministry thinks that other points may need to be reconsidered as a result of the proposal to test commercial vehicles annually.
On lighting, several amendments have been suggested and the Ministry is especially concerned to consider the rear lighting of lorries, the fitting and use of stoplights and the use of headlamps-
quite apart from ECE recommendations which need to be taken into account.
Information from the Ministry suggests that a fairly thoroughgoing revision of the entire regulations is in mind—the department has admitted that some regulations arc very old and some perhaps unduly restrictive, and that the need for their retention should be reconsidered.
In the consolidated C. and U. regulations there are 110 regulations and six schedules and in the consolidated Lighting Regulations there are 46 main items and five schedules; the Ministry feels that the time and energy devoted to the work of revision would be justified by the improved safety on the roads which should result. It also points out that if associations co-operate in formulating or revising regulations then their consideration of draft regulations should be much speedier.
Among the organizations invited to join the working parties are the RHA, TRTA, SMMT, PTA, MPTA, PV0A, SRPTA, LTB, RoSPA, TGWU, AA and R AC.
The RHA said this week that they had been asking for a thorough revision of both sets of regulations for a long time and were fully in agreement with the Ministry's proposals, The new vehicles and highways committee has yet to have its first meeting but it is expected to recommend that its representatives should be the committee secretary, Mr. G. H. Mitchell, the chairman (at present Mr. C. W. Oliver) and a BRS nominee.
The Ministry, in inviting the associations' co-operation, has suggested that splinter groups should tackle separate subjects and report back for the main committee to ratify their work, and a TRTA spokesman this week told The Commercial Motor that he thought the association would strongly support such a practical arrangement. The spokesman said that probably 75 per cent of the work would be a tidying up operation but there were great possibilities for simplifying, and thereby improving, the regulations and some new points might well emerge. Also, he thought that some of the exceptions from the norm which tend to clutter the present regulations might be swept away.
The PTA commented this week that the passenger operators and the SMMT were, through the joint standing technical committee, already engaged in talks with the Ministry on amending vehicle regulations, but the latest communication from the department will be discussed at meetings next week.