Poole cuts anger VI
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by Rob Willock • Vehicle Inspectorate staff have reacted angrily to a head-office dictate limiting their checks at Poole to one a month.
The VI has bowed to pressure from Poole's port authority and promised to cut back enforcement on vehicles using the Dorset port. Its manned checkpoint at Ashley Heath has also been suspended after the port complained that its customers were receiving unfair treatment by being checked so often.
But one VI officer says: "We know there are hundreds of overloaded trucks pouring out of Poole. We even know who the main offenders are, but we're now unable to do anything about it. It's pointless letting them disperse all over the country and having to waste resources catching them elsewhere." He believes many illegal operators will take advantage of the enforcement lull.
But Bob Linton, the VI's head of operations for enforcement, says: "We are very aware of the commercial sensitivities and competition between the ports. We are simply regulating the level of checking at each port to make it commensurate with the volume of traffic coming in. After discussions with Poole on 15 January, we've agreed that there is proportionally more checking there."
Linton warns that hauliers should not see this as a reduction in enforcement levels; rather as a redeployment.