Limiters to follow tachograph system
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• PIG)/ speed limiters will have to be checked at the annual test, predicts Roger Hamilton of Econocruise —the PSV limiter regs do not demand such checks. But he believes it imperative that operators should be able to check and repair their own limiters instead of being restricted to approved centres as they are with tachographs.
This view is not shared by Lucas Kienzle managing director Fed Kay. He wants speed limiter fitting, repair, faultfinding and calibration to be carried out along tachograph lines.
"That way we can make sure the units are properly fitted and calibrated by trained people," he says. "I'd hate to see the situation where 2-3,000 people were fitting these units without proper training."
Kay says that annual testing would then entail no more than checking the calibration date and making sure the seals are intact. Any problems would be sorted out by approved agents.
In a meeting between the speed limiter manufacturers, and the VI, DTp, RHA and FTA, broad agreement was reached about setting up calibration and sealing centres. These centres would be nominated by limiter manufacturers and approved by the VI, which would then issue a seal number (as with tachographs).
Under this system anyone could fit the units, but they would have to be calibrated and sealed by an approved centre.
At the meeting the VI requested that the testing/calibration equipment should be compatible for all makes of limiter.
Econocruise sells a piece of diagnostic equipment for about .£100 which will check the power and signal to its unit and show the speed
setting. Lucas-Kienzle's diagnostic equipment requires access to a tachograph-type rolling road.
Calibration at the annual test is expected to be included in a consultation paper that will be issued by Dip with with the next few weeks.