LAs warn that VI cuts will hit safety
Page 6
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
by David Harris II The Government's commitment to make British haulage safer is failing, according to the Licensing Authorities' annual report.
Several LAs say they are worried about declining standards in enforcement from the Vehicle Inspectorate at a time when Government ministers promise improvements but insist on cash cuts.
Scottish LA Michael Betts links the problem directly to the VI's enforced 20% economy drive. "We appear to he seeing now the results of cut-backs in the Vehicle Inspectorate," he says. "I do find this worrying when there is no evidence of a significant improvement in vehicle standards."
Brigadier Compton Boyd, the Eastern LA, is even more forthright. He says: "The need for such enforcement now lies at the very heart of the licensing system; without it not only is road safety jeopardized but the law-abiding operator becomes disenchanted with a regime that allows cheats to prosper. In sum the system loses its credibility."
Keith Waterworth, North Eastern LA, says he is concerned about the the fall in the VI's detection rate for overloaded vehi cies, while John Mervyn Pugh, South Wales LA, notes that the number of vehicles inspected at spot checks in his region fell by 40% to 5,571 because of cutbacks.
Despite the LAs' comments, there are no major surprises in the latest report. Licence revocations are slightly up, to 730; convictions have risen from 587 to 690; and there is a 12% overall increase in disciplinary action taken by the LAs. None of this is enough for Brake, the haulage safety campaign. Director Mary Williams says there is not enough "tough action" against dangerous companies; she continues to call for more licence revocations.
Tim Inman, the Road Haulage Association's director of operations, is sceptical about the statistics on overloading, which show an increase of 20% in the number of vehicles being weighed, coupled with a decrease of 3% in prohibitions. He says: "From these figures one can only conclude that either standards are improving or else the wrong people are being checked. Given the views on overloading circulating in the industry there must be grounds for suspecting the latter."
The Department of Transport has no comment on the LAs report, merely referring back to a promise of £350,000 extra funding for the VI made by Steven Norris in May. This money has been labelled by the RHA as "figure juggling".