Vls staff shortage has pushed test queues...
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by Melanie Hammond Staffing problems have continued to compromise the efficiency of the Vehicle Inspectorate this year with some hauliers forced to wait up to throe months for annual test bookings.
The VI's Effectiveness Report for 1999/2000 admits: "One area where we did not perform as well as last year is in the test appointment booking time and we will be working this year to restore performance to our previous high stan dards." In August, Commercial Motor reported a three month wait at Gillingham, Kent testing station (CM 26 Aug-1 Sept 1999).
Training VI personnel on the computerised information system which was introduced in 1998 compounded staffing problems. The system had been brought in to give VI staff instant roadside access to operators' records via laptop computers.
A VI spokeswoman says: "We know that this has been a problem and we've now set up front-line user groups and have specialist trainers In place to support users locally. Refresher training has been organised for the first quarter of the new year."
She admits: "We have had staffing difficulties but we have recently had a successful recruitment drive."
The VI claims its emphasis this year on drivers' hours and records offences yielded results with a marked increase In the number of prosecutions. It claims that a fall in the detection of overloading offences was "in line with the increase in weights permitted on heavy vehicles",