What the Examiners Look For
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Tests and Investigations Made by Engineers Whose First Concern is the Prevention of
Road Accidents EVERY user of goods vehicles, from the owner of the small delivery van to the operator of the large fleet of lorries, must now maintain his machines in safe condition or render himself liable, if not to the loss of their services, to finding himself handicapped when the time arrives for the renewal of his licences.
Under the Road Traffic Act, 1930, and the Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933, the certifying Officers for the traffic areas have power to issue immediate prohibition notices, and the vehicle examiners prohibition notices giving operators 10 days' warning, in the event of a goods vehicle being found to be in use in a dangerous or unroadworthy condition.
The Consequences of Neglect.
In the former case (which arises comparatively rarely) the vehicle must at once be taken off the road for repairs, or as no longer fit for service. In the latter, those faults to which attention has been drawn must he remedied within the stated period. In either case, the fact that the examiner has been dissatisfied with the condition of the machine will react unfavourably against the operator In the event of his seeking to renew his licences, or to obtain them should they not have been already granted.
No operator, however, need have cause for anxiety provided that his vehicles are maintained in reasonable condition. There is nothing abnormal in the degree of efficiency insisted upon, nor would the examiner be liable to take exception to anything that common sense combined with technical knowledge would obviously dictate as , inadvisable.
A Short Test on the Road.
As might be expected, the first objects of their investigations are, normally, brakes and steering gear and, in addition to a cursory examination of these parts, a short road test is usually , made, during which the vehicle will probably be driven only by its owner's driver. Worn brake drums may be looked for, an extreme degree of wear being deteetable by distortion perceptible by the eye as the shoes are expanded. If his suspicions are aroused, the engineer may give instructions for the drum to be removed in order to reveal the condition of the friction facings.
Slack steering rods can be detected by jacking up the front axle, as can excessive back-lash in the steering box, looseness of the drop arm, and so forth. This last-named fault, incidentally, is one that is naturally regarded as being of a particularly serious nature. With the wheels jacked up, loose swivel pins and frontand rear-Wheel bearings are also looked for ; hub caps -may have to be removed for their inspection.
Shacklepins and bushes are common subjects of the examiner's search, and if wear here is pronounced it is not hard to detect. Broken spring leaves constitute a potential source of danger, and tyres if obviously nearing the end of their useful life will be condemned, but objection is unlikely to be taken to a well-worn tread provided the fabric and walls appear sound.
Inspection of Universal Joints.
Unless the road test should have aroused the examiner's suspicions concerning the state of the gearbox and back axle—an improbable event, because faults in these components are unlikely to have disastrous consequences—he will usually confine his investigations to the transmission and the propeller shaft, looking for damaged fabric couplings, loose bolts and nuts, and badly worn metallic universal joints.
In connection with the engine, the points considered here are likely to be the holding-down bolts, the bearers, the exhaust-pipe attachment—a leaky or broken exhaust joint would be regarded as dangerous—and the state of the carburetter and petrol-feed system. The tank, also, of course, is examined for escapes of fuel from taps, unions, plugs, seams, etc. Where there is a likelihood of petrol dripping on to the exhaust pipe, repairs will be insisted upon with special urgency.
Possibly the examiner will question the condition of the actual chassis frame, in which case he may run his eye along the lower flange of the main member, seeking a crack, or he may adopt some more drastic method, such as driving the vehicle at speed over a pot-holey road. We understand that cases have actually been experienced when this treatment has resulted in a complete collapse of the frame.
Indications of neglect in chassis lubrication are also sought for, and gross failures in this respect might be con. sidered justification for an immediate prohibition notice, in which case the examiner would have to notify the certifying officer himself, only the latter having power to issue these notices.
Trailers naturally receive attention, the commonest causes for complaint having hitherto been _found in the drawbar-couplings and brakes.
Inspection of the bodywork is also carried out, and repairs of any fault that might be regarded as a source of danger will be insisted upon. In this connection, loose and insecurely fixed mudguards might be considered dangerous. The examiner also looks out for cases of unsafe loading. He cannot, of course, stop the machine on the road, but should he observe a fault on a passing vehicle he may notify the police ahead to stop it, or follow up the lorry himself, making his inspection at its next stopping place.
Where Examinations are Made.
Inspections, however, can only be carried out on the road or in the garage where the examiner has cause to believe the lorry is normally kept. He is entitled to enter any such garage for this purpose at a reasonable time. He may not make inspections on private ground, such as pull-ups in front of coffee-stalls.
We understand that the examiners, whenever possible, make appointmenth for the inspection of goods vehicles, but in the course of journeying from one appointed place to another they are at liberty to inspect any stationary lorries they may encounter.
. The -owner of the vehicle that has been examined, having been instructed concerning repairs that must be executed within 1.0 days, a second inspection will have to be made before the date of expiry of this period to ascertain that the work has been properly carried out. In some cases the machine has to be brought to the place appointed by the examiner, in others the examiner will go to the machine at its garage, whilst in some circumstances a rendezvous convenient to both parties will be arranged.
Reasonable Attitude of Officers.
Certifying officers, we understand, instruct their examiners to work in such a manner as to cause the operator of the machine the minimum of inconvenience and to avoid, wherever possible, the need for taking the vehicle to which repairs are to be executed off the road. Only in the case of a serious fault should the latter course be necessary.
Most of the items enumerated earlier would be considered as not of sufficient urgency to justify stopping the lorry there and then, provided that the owner has the repairs executed so soon as possible during the time that the machine is not normally working.
To simplify the arrangement of examinations without causing owners inconvenience, it is usual for each examiner to be responsible for one section of the area concerned, there being as many sections as there are examiners, and it is customary for each examiner to reside at a point as centrally situated as possible in his own section.