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Annual Testing Soon—and R.H.A. to Help Operators on Maintenance
Page 50
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10111 LANS for introducing compulsory
.annual testing of heavy goods vehicles have now been approved, said Mr. Marples when he opened the Commercial Motor Show on Friday. Discussions about the detailed arrangements for establishing the scheme are to be started with organizations representing the motor industry and transport operators, and both the Road Haulage Association and the Traders Road Transport Association have welcomed the Minister's announcement and pledged their co-operation. The R.H.A. has also revealed that it is planning a comprehensive campaign to help operators improve vehicle standards.
Announcing the approval of compulsory-testing plans, Mr. Marples told those assembled at Earls Court that the one aspect of the road transport industry which worried him was the disclosure, through roadside checks, that too large a proportion of vehicles was defective; bad maintenance, he said, was not confined to small hauliers and the spot checks had revealed faults among the largest industrial operators, as well as in British Road Services vehicles.
Mr. Marples congratulated the motor industry on its export successes and, after remarking that the initiative, flexibility and growth in the road haulage industry were possible only because it consisted of many different enterprises of different sizes, specializing in different services, he went on: "It would not be possible for one nationally owned road transport organization to offer this range of services any more than it would be possible to offer today's wide range of vehicles if you were all absorbed into one nationally owned concern." He pointed out that in the first eight months of 1964, Britain had exported 113,000 commercial vehicles, worth £85m., thus almost equalling the 1961 record and, in fact, maintaining our place as the world's biggest exporter of commercials.
In welcoming the annual testing scheme, both operator associations have pointed out that they had advocated such a step. The R.H.A. also stated on Friday that it had put other proposals to the Minister; these include the completion of schemes for plating goods vehicles; legislation requiring a replacement vehicle to carry the licence disc of the replaced vehicle as well as its own, to show that substitution of vehicles has in fact taken place; and higher standards of braking, especially more efficient secondary systems. The Association suggests that type-testing of all new commercial vehicles would result in improvements and would reduce maintenance difficulties. The R.H.A. has suggested to the Minister that in reports of future roadside checks a clear distinction should be made between prohibition notices and defect notices; it feels that test results are distorted by use of the term "prohibition notice" where an operator has merely been asked to put a defect right within a stated period.
In its campaign to help operators, the Association will circulate to all its members a model schedule on maintenance procedures and routines and it is devising specimen forms for use by drivers in reporting vehicle defects_ The R.H.A. is also urging members to discuss maintenance at local meetings and says it will promote (with other organizations and, it is hoped, Licensing Authorities) maintenance advisory committees in traffic areas where they do not already exist. Meanwhile the Ministry of Transport is being asked to encourage vehicle examiners to address meetings of operators.