VI plans roadside weighpad surprise
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by Karen Miles and Miles Brignall • Hauliers look set to face more surprise weighings following a planned pilot study by the Vehicle Inspectorate to use controversial portable weighpads at the roadside.
The study, which starts in the summer with five weighing machines, is expected to lead to a huge rise in the number of checks operators will face at random sites.
The scheme will be accompanied by a new code of practice to assure the courts of the accuracy of portable weighbridges.
The surprise use of mobile weighers is intended to increase those caught overloaded as law-breakers have deliberately avoided driving near to the VI's 72 fixed weighbridges.
However, due to problems with the accuracy of portable weighers, only a handful of local authority trading standards officers have so far used them.
The VI and trading standards body, the Local Authorities' Co-ordinating Body on Food and Trading Standards (LACOTS), is working to improve their use, so that hauliers will be unable to avoid prosecution by arguing the weighing was imprecise.
A final version of a new code of practice is expected shortly. It will set out how a vehicle should be weighed and will guarantee the accuracy of the results within a stated percentage.
The results will then stand up in court, says VI deputy chief executive, Julian David.
The move is to help fulfil a target published last week by the VI which says the execu tive agency must improve road safety by at least 2% next year.
Portable weighpods poised to catch overloaded operators.
It also accompanies a switch of emphasis by the VI away from mass weighings to more selected enforcement activity against lawbreakers. This year, around 75,000 weighings will be carried out by VI staff against last year's figure of 115,000.
The VI last trialled mobile weighers in the late 1980's in Scotland, the north and the South-East but they were found to be too difficult to operate. Since then their design has been improved.