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Big test sell off
Page 5
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AS THE FUTURE ownership of Department of Transport heavy goods vehicle testing stations still hangs in the balance, the DTp has released figures which show an encouraging trend in the standard of stations' work.
The number of vehicles tested in 1979/80 has dropped from 1974/75's 733, 220 to 729,573, but the percentage of failures has dropped from 22.4 per cent to 21.5 per cent. This is exactly the same percentage as last year.
There has also been a drop in the number of vehicles retested from 172,332 in 1974/75 to 166,826, but the percentage of failures, again the same as last year, is 9.2 per cent, compared with 7.7 per cent in 1974/75.
Transport Minister Norman Fowler has been expected to issue a statement on how and when some of the test stations will be sold to private enterprise, but it is understood that the DTp will have no trouble selling them.
Among possible buyers is the National Freight Corporation — itself poised to be sold to private enterprise — but it has made no statement yet.