Press ahead with type
Page 24
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
approval SAYS FTA • Introduction of a commercial vehicle type-approval scheme should be pressed ahead without delay, the Freight Transport Association has told the Ministry of Transport. Originally, it had been intended to have this scheme in operation about the end of 1970 and the Association views th4 delay with considerable concern, stating that -Operators have been looking to type approval as a means of ensuring that manufacturers allow an adequate margin in their design to cater for unavoidable deterioration in performance between the 'new' and 'in-use' state. Such a margin is of great importance in the case of items such as brakes, where minimum operating standards are laid down. The present Code of Practice system provides the operator with no legal safeguard whatsoever.
The delay in the introduction of type approval also means that Ministry plating of new vehicles will have to be carried out in the operator's time and at his expense at the time of a vehicle's first test.
Primarily, the FTA views type approval as a means of ensuring a fairer distribution of liability between vehicle operators and manufacturers. Under the present system, says the Association, operators are too often at risk because of inherent weakness in design and construction. Also they have no ready means of assessing the more sophisticated performance requirements and safety margins built into vehicles.
Under a type-approval scheme goods vehicle design and performance standards would have to be approved by the Ministry of Transport before a new goods vehicle was allowed to leave the factory.