Unsafe lorries: Transport Committee urges VOSA to be given new powers

In a report published earlier this week (24 August) on the enforcement activities of VOSA, the House of Commons Transport Committee has called for the Agency to be given additional powers and resources.

In particular VOSA to have access to ports to enable more effective inspection of vehicles and drivers entering the UK from other EU member states.  This should be underpinned by data sharing between VOSA and enforcement authorities in other member states (members will recall that an agreement to create a Europe-wide database of safety performance records by 2013 was reached by the EU Transport Council in June 2008).    

Other key recommendations include:

• VOSA to be given IT systems which update data instantly across the entire system and have better information sharing arrangements with other agencies such as HMRC (which has access to additional information such as ships manifests) and the police
• whilst the Committee supports the principle of wider use of testing at private sector premises, VOSA should be required to retain a signification network of test sites in order to maintain adequate coverage for annual testing throughout the UK
• future above inflation increases in test fees must be justified with real improvements in services
•  VOSA should not rely solely on the Operator Compliance Risk Score (OCRS) to target non-compliant operators for inspection.  It must continue to use other techniques and technologies, such as random spot checks and weigh in motion sensors (WIMS), particularly in relation to foreign lorries which at present have no OCRS score