VI tries speed limit checker
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by Guy Sheppard • The Vehicle Inspectorate is testing a new device for checking speed limiters amid growing concern at the ease with which they can be overridden. Trials are due to be completed next month and the hand-held device could be used in roadside checks from next year.
VI traffic enforcement section engineer Mike Goundry says: "It's a very good tool if you suspect a vehicle has exceeded the speed limit. It could be quite a deterrent to people who are tampering with or negating speed limiters."
He adds that the device, made by a British tachograph manufacturer, checks the accuracy of tacho calibration as well as the setting of speed limiters and whether they work or not.
The ease with which speed limiters can be overridden was highlighted three months ago at a public inquiry involving 12 drivers employed by DC Ball Transport of Newmarket.
Tachograph records showed 477 incidents of excessive speed over seven months—and in all but one case, no special equipment was needed to disable the limiters on the Scania and Volvo trucks.
Eastern Traffic Commissioner Geoffrey Simms called on truck manufacturers to investigate.
Goundry said evaluating whether limiters worked properly was time consuming and complicated, but the new device could do this job within two minutes. And because it works on limiters which take their signal from the tachograph head, it can be used on at least 75% of UK trucks.
"We are evaluating what we can and can't do with this equipment," says Goundry. "We are quite happy with its performance. We are collecting data weekly from eight examiners at the moment."
Checks may be recorded in some form in the memory of vehicle management systems but no detrimental effects were discovered in a joint evaluation programme with vehicle manufacturers, he adds.