dynamic weighers
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lishes the findings later in the spring.
But transport lawyer Jonathan Lawton says he remains convinced that dynamic weighers are inconsistent.
The survey showed dynamic axle weighbridges were consistent, but only within 150kg per axle.
This means that two readings on the same weighbridge could give a 750kg difference for the same five-axle truck but still he regarded as consistent by the Dip, says Lawton.
Department examiners who do allow a second weigh to drivers often warn that if the second reading is higher that will be accepted by the prosecution authorities, says Lawton.
"If I was told that, I'd want to know why the same weighbridge was giving two separate readings," he says. The Freight Transport Association believes that dynamic weighbridges themselves are accurate, but that inconsistencies can arise if the ground around the site is uneven or if the truck is driven on to the weighbridge too fast. "It has to go at 2.5mph, otherwise dynamic forces defeat the accuracy," says FTA head of engineering Ron Rider.
The Dip currently has 68 dynamic-weighbridge sites, 17 of which are driver selfoperated. Drivers at another eight of the 68 will soon be allowed to check the weight of their trucks.
An RITA-backed proposal for licensing authorities to be empowered to impound unlicensed trucks has stumbled at the first Parliamentary hurdle. Gary Waller, Conservative MP for Keighley, missed a chance to propose an amendment to the Road Traffic Bill, which reached its report stage in the Commons last week.
Waller says he will try to raise it as a 10-minute rule bill in the House later in the year, but this is a device to give an issue an airing and rarely leads to legislation.
The RHA is confident that the plan can be brought up when the Bill goes to the Lords, but again it has little chance of becoming law without Government support.
The amendment would allow LAs to seize unlicensed lorries and hand them to a county council for safekeeping. At the moment an unlicensed haulier can only be summonsed, and until he appears in court he can go on operating illegally.
"It is a means of depriving the means of trading," says the RHA. "But LAs would not use it as a bludgeon — operators would have the right of appeal."