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I hits its targets—but ills to cut sick leave
Page 9
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Miles Brignall
'ehicie Inspectorate has published its annual 1 and it appears to have met all its major tar.1xcept in one area—staff sick leave.
[St year, staff belonging to the Bristol-based
which is about to be merged with the c Area Network, checked almost 1.5 million >graph charts among a host of other activiet out in the report.
'hile this makes it clear that the VI hit all its r performance targets in areas such as ,ing cut emissions checks and annual testalso shows that it failed to reduce absence o sickness.
le government had set all its agencies a tarif reducing sick leave by 20%, down to an ige of 7.4 days per employee. However, last the VI didn't even come close and managed .0.1% reduction.
espite this, the report is generally upbeat. txample, it notes that impounding has been a ass since it started in January. By 31 March, ucks had been impounded, and only one had returned following a successful appeal to the c Commissioner.
records that staff carried out 3,456 unanced visits to operators' premises. During visits they inspected a total of 5,500 vehi
des, of which 683 or 12% received delayed or immediate prohibitions.
The number of people calling the VI's whistleblowers hotline (0870 6060 4401 has grown by 500% to 50-70 calls a month.
The report also reveals that the VI is to take over the introduction of digital tachographs and has provided expert witnesses to the European forums reviewing drivers' hours legislation.
• What do you think of the Vl's performance— particularly at its test centres? See News Analysis on page 14.