The days grow short
Page 21
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Any operator running goods vehicles weighing over 30 cwt unladen who has not yet obtained, studied and taken action on the Tester's Manual prepared by the Ministry of Transport is living in a fool's paradise. When the Ministry started voluntary testing at its first few stations there were alarming tales about the very high rate of "failureamong vehicles submitted. Now Mr. Neil Carmichael has revealed that less than a third of all the vehicles submitted for voluntary test have been sufficiently free from defects to merit a first-time "pass".
The Ministry suggests that these vehicles have not perhaps been truly representative of goods vehicles in service: some had just been overhauled in fleet workshops, but others had been submitted to see whether they were worth repairing at all. Nevertheless, the six-week "control periodwhich was analysed to check the earlier results produced a defect rate which is almost identical with the overall average. Whether or not the figures are precisely representative, they are worrying enough to make operators take a long, hard look at how their maintenance system ties in with the requirements of the test.
This is the very line which "Handyman" has been taking in his current Road and Workshop series and indeed this week's instalment deals specifically with the use of the Tester's Manual. It is a topic no operator or engineer can afford to ignore: official testing starts in less than six weeks' time in England and Wales.