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Vosa out 1 money' s ines 'big per sites
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The UK's enforcement authorities are planning a major step forward in their targeting of operators — foreign and domestic. Brian Weatherley reports.
VOSA WANTS TO create a network of up to six enforcement super sites, supported by high-tech tools including automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) and weigh-in-motion sensors (WIMS), by the middle of 2008. However, its ability to deliver the ambitious plan will depend on persuading the Department for Transport (DfT) to unlock major funding, as Commercial Motor understands that each site could cost £3m-4m. At this week's launch of the joint South-East International Transport Pilot enforcement project, Malcolm Blake-Lawson, head of HGV/PSV enforcement policy at the DfT, told CM: We have to make a business case for these sites-it's big money."
The sites, to be run jointly with Vosa's enforcement partner the Highways Agency, will be located either close to ports or major arterial routes and be big enough to handle a large volume of vehicles during multi-agency enforcement checks.
"One of the problems Vosa has is finding the space to physically check large numbers of vehicles," says Blake-Lawson. The super sites could also offer other services such as vehicle cleaning to operators, as Blake-Lawson does not rule out the possibility of them being supported through a private finance initiative.
Vosa has already created the first super site at Holyhead as part of its crackdown on illegal vehicles entering the UK from Ireland.
The use of high-tech enforcement aids such as WIMS and ANPR is also set to increase, reports Vosa's director of intelligence and targeting, Janice James.
Vosa has two WIMS sites in operation at Portsmouth Docks and on the M6 north of Birmingham, which is run in conjunction with ANPR. —Ibgether with the Highways Agency we're looking to have between 20 and 24 WIMS sites in and around ports and in some inland locations," says James. The accuracy rate of WIMS is 85100% for vehicles being caught overloaded and prohibited, and does away with the need to stop and weigh legally loaded vehicles in random checks.
"With WIMS we don't need to pull in and keep waiting those vehicles that are compliant," says James. who adds that overloaded vehicles detected by wIrsits frequently have other non-compliance issues, from roadworthiness to drivers' hours offences.