1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186 
Test failure rate and prohibition rate rise
Page 24
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Vosa handles more than 460,000 LGV roadworthiness tests per year to ensure the vehicles comply with road traffic legislation. And while Vosa is also involved with traffic enforcement, this week's Yardstick focuses on the vehicles themselves.
Department for Transport (DfT) figures suggest either that Vosa has become stricter, or that operators are not looking after their vehicles as well as they did -the initial test failure rate has risen from 37% of vehicles in 1996/97 to 38.9% in 2004/2005. This is not a major increase, but as vehicle technology has improved over this nine-year period, the figure should have decreased.
The final failure rate for 2004/05 is 25%, the same as 1996/97. The graphs show an increase in initial and final failure rates in 2001/2002, but this was influenced by a change in policy on permissible repairs at Vosa testing stations from April 2001. Another figure that has risen is the prohibition rate of vehicles at spot checks. In 1996/97, 20% of vehicles stopped incurred prohibitions; by 2004/05 this had risen to 22%. The statistics include data from foreign vehicles, which are more common on UK roads now than nine years ago.
However, accusations that foreign-registered trucks are not as well maintained as their UK counterparts are unsupported by DfT figures. In 2004/5, 23.7% of foreign trucks stopped for checks picked up prohibitions; the figure for UK-registered trucks was 22.2%. There is a bigger difference with trailers; the respective prohibition rates are 25.4% for the UK and 39.8% for foreign trailers.
Fleet checks have a significantly lower prohibition rate of only 8%. This was helped no doubt by the fact that operators have notice of these checks, which are generally reserved for firms whose vehicle maintenance is in question.