VOSA pokes at Facebook for drivers who breach rules
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By Hayley Pink VOSA OFFICIALS have been logging on to social networking sites to catch out law-louting HGV drivers trying to breach drivers’ hours regulations.
Websites such as VOSA Watch, with as many as 2,800 registered users, have been springing up as a platform for drivers to warn each other about any VOSA checkpoints or enforcement teams on the roads.
But VOSA oficials are ighting back and are using Facebook and other web forums to gather intelligence.
One recent example saw a Northern Irish truck driver pulled over by the Commercial Vehicle Unit on the A55 near Bangor, Gwynedd, after claiming he had taken a rest stop on his way to north Wales at Redditch, Worcestershire. The driver was known to oficials as a regular poster on VOSA Watch and was found to have reported himself passing Ross-on-Wye weighbridge halfway through his rest. He also posted that the weighbridge was closed to inform other drivers.
A VOSA spokesman says: “The driver admitted destroying a tachograph records sheet and taking insuficient daily rest.” He was ined £600 and issued a drivers’ hours prohibition.
David Collings, VOSA area manager, north Wales, says of this latest crackdown on law breakers: “This case has shown how VOSA can use social media sites, such as Facebook, to identify and stop tired drivers before they cause accidents.”
However, the founder of VOSA Watch, who wishes to remain anonymous, says in a letter to CM: “VOSA Watch was not set up as a tip-off site, but as an information site for drivers who don’t want to be delayed, sometimes simply because their number plate is Irish.