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The helping hand of an enforcer

11th September 2008
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Page 22, 11th September 2008 — The helping hand of an enforcer
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Vosa's customer director Kevin Rooney might look like a tough nut to crack. But he'd rather be educating operators than cracking down on them.

Words: Brian Weatherley

THE EYES HAVE IT Look into Kevin Rooney's and the word 'enforcer' leaps out at you. They're penetrating and uncompromising. Yet looks alone can be deceptive. Vosa's customer director says: "Helping people is what gets me out of bed in the morning."

While that might provide little comfort to any haulier who's recently fallen foul of the men, and women, from 'the ministry', Rooney's remark is a timely reminder that Vosa's job isn't just to catch those operators who deliberately cross the line, it's also about helping those at risk of crossing it through ignorance and poor management — an important, and not always visible, delineator between the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency and other enforcement agencies.

When it comes to job satisfaction, Rooney insists: "1 enjoy far more the bit about helping people to get it right. 'Enforcement' is really about dealing with people who decide to do it wrong — and normally for financial gain.

The recent decision by transport minister Jim Fitzpatrick to lift the lingering threat of privatising HGV testing and to spend £28m on modernising Vosa test stations and its operational effectiveness has clearly been welcomed by Vosa's rank and file. The trade union Prospect declared: -Common sense has prevailed.., it's a shame that the Government didn't listen sooner and save the taxpayers millions wasted in consultants' fees."

So how does Rooney see things? "The decision not to outsource testing is great news," he replies. "It not only ends two years of uncertainty about our future, but also shows ministerial confidence in the Agency" Moreover, that extra investment, he says: "Provides pump-priming capital to allow us to radically improve the way testing is delivered."

Senior Vosa managers are currently talking to the Department for Transport (DfT) to thrash out the detail behind that statement, with the intention of kicking off a consultation with ihe industry around October.

In the meantime. Rooney is adamant that: -This is a great chance for us to work with operators and maintainers of vehicles to ensure we deliver a testing service that meets their needs."

Room for improvement

So what does Rooney make of Vosa's current enforcement activity? His response is refreshingly blunt. "We'll always improve it," he states, "but where we're at I think is bloody good!"

In recent years, Vosa's enforcement strategy has been 'intelligence-led'. However, that policy of deliberately targeting obvious miscreants has not been without its critics, including, at times, CM. The counter-argument being that if you set out to catch the obvious (and most visible) offenders, you'll clearly get them hut you won't necessarily catch those less obvious, but equally illegal, operators who might otherwise be stopped in broader, more random checks. In other words, there's a bigger picture.

Rooney produces some truck weighing data to support the claim that targeted enforcement not only catches the had guys, but catches more of them.

In 2003/4, Vosa officers weighed 48.229 trucks and prohibited 3,783 for being overloaded (equating to a 7.8% prohibition rate). By 2007/8, while the number of trucks check-weighed fell by more than 47% to 25,409, the number of prohibitions issued jumped by 103% to 7,699, giving a prohibition rate of 30.3% for every truck stopped. But don't those 'targeted' figures obscure a greater level of illegal operations in the industry? Rooney pulls another rabbit out of the hat for us. He says: "Every two years, we do a fleet compliance survey, where we pull in 5,000 vehicles at random. The statisticians then tell us where we are in relation to the industry mean, and where to go and what to go for. Its baseline compliance data for us.

"In fact, we're conducting three surveys this year: HGV Domestic; Non-UK HGV; and PSV Condition."

Personal mantra

If Vosa's policy of targeting wasn't working, you'd expect a more random sample check to reveal a prohibition rate as equally high (or worse) than the targeted sample. It doesn't.

The last domestic vehicle random compliance survey in 2006 showed HGV prohibitable defects of about 9% and 12% for trailers, while tacho and overloading offences ran at about 9%.

Rooney explains: "In targeted checks during the first quarter of 2008/09, HGV and trailer roadworthiness prohibition rates are 30%, while tactic) and weighing items are at about 31%.In short, he adds: "It's about targeting, and not wasting people's time." We can't help but bring up the problems caused by headlamp aim in the annual test the single biggest reason for failure and a major source of operator frustration.

Without giving the game away, Rooney alludes to the talks between Vasa and the industry (CM 10 July), leading to a more 'pragmatic' approach to headlamp testing in early 2009 (see this week's news headlines).

Rooney, however, cautions with the annual first-time HGV failure rate (39.5% in 2006/7) remaining pretty static. "A lot of fleets aren't doing well. But for the ones that don't know any better, we hope to guide them" he says. Notice that 'helping hand' again? For Rooney. it's less party-line, more personal mantra: "My job is to understand our impact on the industry, and to make sure we provide the right sort of support, so operators can comply with the rules."

And who can argue with that? • aFOR THE LATEST HEWS VISIT: kwww.roadtransport.comlem


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