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CV standard ise In
Page 6
Page 7
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annual test
MI Fewer vehicles are failing their annual tests, but numbers of immediate prohibitions from spot checks are rising, according to the Vehicle Inspectorate's annual report published this week. A record 1.08 million tests were carried out in 1988/89 — 999,000 on HGVs and 87,600 on PSVs.
The VI says the condition of goods vehicles has improved slightly during the past year with overall failure rates dropping from 33% to 31.5% for HGVs. There was also a slight drop in the number of trailer failures. Brake problems were once again the most common reasons for vehicle failure, with trailers 25% more likely to fail brake tests than vehicles.
Over the past year more than 78,000 spot checks were carried out on CVs. The overall prohibition rate fell from 21% to 20%. but immediate prohibitions rose by 0.5% to 8.5%.
Light commercial vehicle test failures remained at 419 and failure rates for passeng, vehicles fell by almost 2% la! year, to 38.8%.
Although immediate prohiL tions of PSVs rose slightly, 2 VI survey on the effects of PSV deregulation indicates a "marked improvement in vel. cle condition".
The VI says that staff shol tages in the South-East are a major problem, causing the number of exemption certificates issued in the past year jump by almost 200 to 6,723 During 1989 only some 65% operators were given test dates when requested; nearl; 40% of vehicles could not ha test dates within 28 days of their application.
There was some encourag ing environmental news. Sur ys carried out over the year ow a drop in the number of :hides smoking excessively, though the failure rate for exssive smoke was unchanged just over 1%.
The Vehicle Inspectorate is )v.7 semi-privatised as an ex:utive agency, but profits we plummeted to .U76,000
— a drop of more than 500/c. Income, however, rose from L32.5 million to £36.7 million.
Road Haulage Association director of operations Tim Inman says: "There is a welcome improvement in the condition of vehicles being presented for test, and this reflects well on the road haulage industry. Not so welcome is the continuing trend in trailer test failures."
Roads and Traffic Minister Robert Atkins says: "While the results in the report show encouraging trends, the failure rates continue to be too high, and serve to remind operators to ensure their vehicles are properly maintained."