ATF association awaits Vosa testing decision
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By Robin Meczes
THE ATF Operators Association said it will wait for next year's vehicle examiner allocations to be confirmed by Vosa before deciding what to do next about the contractual clampdown on operators of private testing facilities, which was announced by the agency in June. Stephen Smith, president of the ATF Operators Association, told CM that although he welcomed an apparent softening in approach by Vosa last week, the association would still be watching to see whether ATFs were granted the testing time they requested, when
the allocations are announced in the next few weeks.
"Then we will know how strongly they're going to enforce this policy and see if they're going to reduce anyone's testing capacity for next year," he said.
In an ATF e-bulletin published on 5 September, the agency indicated that it "would not necessarily" be restricting access to examiner time, where examiner utilisation targets were not met by individual ATFs. This contrasted with its statement in June (CM 27 June), which said that "ATFs that do not meet the expected utilisation will have
their sessions reduced" and that "cancelling testing periods with less than seven days' notice will result in future months' testing periods being reduced".
Vosa has suggested the change in tone is due to it managing to improve examiner utilisation since the so-called Station Manager ATF Framework was announced.
"By working through the framework together we have, so far, achieved the objective of increasing productivity. If further action is required with an ATF, it is not a foregone conclusion that we will withdraw our staff or the ATF," said the agency in its statement.
It remains unclear, however, whether Vosa is still maintaining its original line on failed drawdowns of fees. In June, it said it would start cancelling a month's testing periods if there were two failures in any month in drawdowns and it would also consider termination of ATF contracts if such situations arose three times in any year.
Requests to Vosa to clarify the situation on failed drawdowns remained unanswered as CMwent to press.