Cowboys fall into VI's lap
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Everyone talks about how cowboy hauliers blight the industry. But how can a roadside inspector tell the good guys from the bad? In future the answer may be by making a quick check on his laptop computer. Miles Brignall reports.
THE SYSTEM
• Although it sounds complicated, JEDI is based on Windows software and has been designed for ease of use. The VI is confident the system will work and will invest Z16m in computerisation over the next 10 years. The main computer, which will update the portables, is being run by a private company near Heathrow.
From the start the Traffic Area Offices will all have terminals and will eventually link their computers into the JEDI system. At this stage it is not planned to allow the police access, although this might change if it are deemed necessary in the future, and the police agree to fund the expansion.
II Imagine the scene: you're pulled over by the Vehicle Inspectorate at a roadside check, your registration number is tapped into a portable computer and Out pours your past record. Details about your 0licence, any convictions and your record at annual test will be instantly accessible via the Joint Enforcement Database (JEDI).
This will all be possible from August this year, and the VI are already getting very excited about it.
Powerful
In April the VI takes delivery of more than 500 powerful mobile computers and the training of staff in their use has already begun. Each computer will be loaded with the licence details of all the vehicles based in the same region as the the VI officer on UK roads—around 16% of the UK total.
From the same date, traffic examiners (TEs) and vehicle examiners (VF.$) will start using JEDI at roadside checks, giving them instant access to operators' basic details.
If they stop a vehicle from another area the computer will be linked to the central computer, via a mobile phone, and its details will be downloaded to the roadside.
However, the major breakthrough occurs in August when TEs and VEs will have instant acce&s to operators' annual test results and will be able to generate prohibition notices from them.
The computers will also hold the VI's categorisation of defects manual and detailed information about specialist vehicles for quick reference.
At the end of each day VI staff will plug the computers into telephone sockets at their offices or homes and all the computers will update each other in relation to the day's activities.
From October the computer system will be able to store information on the results of investigations carried out by TEs at the request of Traffic Commissioners.
It will also allow the VI's legal services to take the infor• mation it requires to mount prosecutions directly from a computer link.
Finally, in January 1998 it is planned to offer VI staff a reporting and follow-up procedure where an immediate serious prohibition has been issued.
EXCitin There is no doubt that computerisation is one of the most farreaching developments to affect the VI in recent years. Chief executive Ron Oliver describes the move as very exciting; he says the staff are very much behind the move.
"We've gone around the country and shown the staff the system and the reaction has been almost wholehearted support, " he adds. "Rut the most important thing JEDI will allow us to do is to really concentrate on targeting our enforcement."
He looks to the future, when an operator's maintenance and safety record will be produced at the touch of a button after, or even before, his truck is pulled over. An operator with an excellent record could be allowed to drive off immediately, while the truck that regularly failed its annual test would be closely examined.
"It's the operators who are continually failing annual tests and not using good maintenance practices that we are after," he says.