'The VI has never been in a position where it is able to set its own targets'
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4 he Sound OFF by former Vehicle
Inspectorate enforcement manager John Allen (CM 21-27 Sept) begs a reply from the people who carry out enforcement within the VI—the traffic examiners. It should be said that the only Traffic Examiner Branch which has ever existed is the NUCPS union section. The Department of Transport has never controlled that.
John Allen makes several sweeping statements about enforcement which he makes no attempt to substantiate. For example, he would have us believe that he predicted "apathy, soft options and easy targets". Is he saying traffic examiners or the VI are apathetic when it comes to enforcement? TEs are as committed as ever to quality enforcement and are still carrying it out as effectively as possible, given the constraints imposed by the Government and its DOT ministers. I would welcome an explanation of the terms "soft options and easy targets". He seems to refer to the "soft option" of "policing the licence holders". But we are still targeting those outside the 0-licensing system for prosecution—a week-long exercise is being run in an attempt to provide percentages of unlicensed vehicles on the roads to support the argument for impounding the vehicles belonging to these illegal operators. The VI has never been in a position where it is able to set its own targets. It has to respond to the demands of its "customers" who buy in the enforcement services. These demands sometimes involve us in tactical number crunching rather than allowing us to police the industry effectively by pursuing more time-consuming and difficult cases which, when a result is achieved, act as a warning to operators. The TEs are keen to be given the resources and freedom to carry out their job in the same professional and competent way they have always done but we are subject to the direction and funding from the customer, the DOT We do not live in a perfect world and much could be done to improve the enforcement effort. The VI is still living with the effects of previous Transport Secretary John McGregor's demand for 20% efficiency savings across the DOT. Being under the aegis of the Traffic Area Offices would not have saved enforcement from the effects of these cuts. Only the separate efforts of the VI and the Brake Campaign were instrumental in ensuring that we were able to recruit extra TEs this year. If these are the effects of "throwing money" at the VI then we are in favour of it.
Brake says: "Unlicensed operation is not only rife, it is also a danger. Lives are being lost due to Government complacency." This is where the emphasis belongs. The system might be geared to policing the licence holders (a valid and much needed effort— just because a person holds a licence does not mean he abides by all the regulations). However, to enable the TEs to address the problem of unlicensed operators, changes are needed to legislation and more stringent fines; not a new, or old master! John Allen may be interested in a recent speech by chief executive Ron Oliver to area managers. He said more strategic targets needed to be negotiated whici would allow the VI to break out of the number-chasing spiral and pursue more effective enforcement—the number chasing having been started to make it easy for the Transport Secretary to answer parliamentary questions. It did little For effective enforcement when the DOT had the TEs under direct control and it is the DOT's continuing intransigence which is causing the problems highlighted by John Allen. The TE branch still retains the expertise and professionalism it has always displayed. We are painfully aware there are measures which could be taken to improve our effectiveness but we do not believe that stepping back into the past is one of them.
• if you want to sound off about a road transport issue write to features editor Patric Cunnane.