'The system is manifestly geared to policing the licence holders'
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4 E
ffective vehicle enforcement began its demise in April 1991 when the decision was taken to allow the Vehicle Inspectorate to take over the Department of Transport's Traffic Examiner Branch.
Those of us who believed enforcement would continue to be controlled by the same key professional managers were soon disappointed, later outraged, and eventually removed from the direct enforcement structure with inevitable damaging results. When I last wrote a Sound Off for CM in July 1993, I accurately predicted today's apathy, soft options and easy targets as a convenient measure to meet enforcement target figures. It was to be an encouraging message to those who thrive by circumventing the rule of law. I was surprised to learn that Steven Curtis, in his June 1995 report on Traffic Area Network scrutiny, thought traffic examiners were correctly located within the VI. There is growing feeling that this is in doubt as the concerns over enforcement activity, enforcement figures and their composition cause confusion. The weighing figures, recently scrutinised in the Licensing Authorities' annual report, revealed that while the numbers were up, prohibitions were down. Could this be explained by instances such as the sugar beet factories fiasco reported in CM 9-25 January 1995? The VI is a first-class engineering organisation and that might offer some excuses for its ponderous start to enforcement. However, it has now had ample time to master these requirements, yet still wanders woefully in the wilderness, Surely, it is time that those at the highest levels of government consider returning the traffic examiner grade to DOT central control. This would also provide a direct involvement back to the Licensing Authorities and Traffic Areas, rather than the counter productive separation which exists in the present "customer related" system. I believe the Brake campaign, which CM has been reporting, should look closely at this rather than following the line that throwing money at VI will produce a magic formula. The system is manifestly geared to policing the licence holders. How refreshing it would be if they could rely on a more even-handed and objective method of enforcement which spent more time pursuing the illegal operator who elects to work outside the system. After all, it is the operators' licence fees which fund and seek to protect the system. The industry should send stronger signals of discontent in the Government's direction.
• If you wont to sound off about a rood transport issue write to features editor Patric Cunnane.