Identify trailers on assembly line
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An article in CM (20-26 August) reported Ron Cummings' inability to track stolen trailers. As auctioneers of thousands of trailers a year, we have long known the difficulty of proving ownership of trailers and also the extreme difficulty of checking trailers through RH for finance or lease involvement.
One relatively simple way to ensure the identity of a trailer is available throughout its life. At the moment we have to rely on a manufacturer's chassis number for the first 12 months of a trailer's life. Then each trailer is issued with a unique ministry ID number at its first annual test.
Surely the easiest way round this dilemma is for the ministry ID number to be issued at the point of manufacture when the trailer rolls off the assembly line. This would ensure the Ministry of Transport had a record of all new trailers coming into circulation and would create a trail to follow the history of any trailer.
Chris Wright,
CVA, Doncaster, South Yorks.