VOSA homes in on serially non-compliant

Richard Denby, VOSA’s area manager for Bristol and the South West, told the FTA Transport Managers’ conference how a concerted effort by his enforcement officers got a non- UK operator to reform its lawbreaking ways.

“We found we had a record of mostly non-compliant encounters with one large non-UK-based operator,” he recounted.

“A significant number of penalty notices were enforced, but it became obvious to us that these were not sufficient. They had just built them into their business model and had no intention of changing their behaviour.

“So we had a period of 48 hours in which we stopped every one of their vehicles every time we saw one. It didn’t matter if we knew it had been stopped 30 minutes previously.

“We soon got a telephone call from the operator concerned, asking if he could have 24 hours to get his trucks out of the country. This request was refused, and we continued to stop his vehicles on sight.

“He then visited VOSA and asked for help in getting his UK operations compliant. This help was given, and we can confidently say that this operator is now compliant in its UK operations at least.”

Mr Denby said the policy of ‘remote enforcement’ currently being trialled in the Western Traffic Area (Transport Operator, October) would allow VOSA to devote more resources to tackling the seriously non-compliant.

But he warned that there was no place for complacency among operators. “We will still know the condition of your fleet through your performance at annual test. Compliant operators will still get trucks stopped on the road if the vehicle or its load look wrong.”