Type Approval YOUR REPORT of the recent maintenance meeting in
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Bristol (COMMERCIAL MOTOR October 7) gives an unfortunate and inaccurate picture of my views on Type Approval and the maintenance position in general.
In my talk I expressed a view that the Type Approval provisions in the Road Safety Bill would be extremely significant for it was essential that new vehicle standards should be set and attained if "in-use" standards were to be realistic and fair upon the operator. To illustrate this position I referred to the problems of brake conversions currently facing the industry and mentioned that such difficulties would have been considerably alleviated had we had Type Approval, say five or six years ago. This, of course, is a long way from being "highly critical" of any one party. To the contrary, responsibility for the present maintenance problems must be shared by three parties: operators, manufacturers and the Ministry of Transport.
All this, however, is history and no useful purpose can be served by dwelling in the past.
The task now is to improve matters for the future and the strengthening of the measures against the operators of defective vehicles coupled with the fixing of minimum standards for vehicles coming out of the factory should lead to the improvements desired by all concerned for the well being of the industry.
G. TUR'VEY, Assistant Secretary, Traders Road Transport Association