DVSA boss: ‘we’ll never have enough money’

Alastair Peoples, the chief executive of the new Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), has admitted that his newly-founded organisation will “never have enough money to do all the roadside enforcement that we want to do.”

Speaking at the DVSA launch event, the former VOSA chief told Transport Operator that he regarded roadside enforcement as “the meeting of last resort.”

Mr Peoples said the objective of DVSA was to move miscreants either “into compliance or out of the industry,” but doing so using roadside checks alone “would bring the roads to a standstill.”

When it came to compliance, he argued: “People have got to get it and understand it, and not just be forced to do it.”

He felt that the authorities were winning the battle by using tool such as the Operator Compliance Risk Score (OCRS).

“The improvement rate for first-time passes at vehicle annual test has doubled since the start of the Authorised Testing Facility scheme,” he pointed out.

“Roadside enforcement is not the only means of enforcement,” he asserted. “We’ve got ANPR cameras, the OCRS risk register and our own intelligence operations.”

Senior traffic commissioner Beverley Bell later expressed concern to Transport Operator that the newly-formed DVSA would not be doing enough at the roadside, which she saw as the frontline between the authorities and offenders.

The traffic commissioners have not always enjoyed the best of relations with DVSA’s predecessor VOSA, with one obvious conflict of interest being that VOSA provided office support staff to the ostensibly independent and quasi-judicial TCs.

Speaking at the launch about the relationship between VOSA/DVSA and the TCs, transport minister Stephen Hammond admitted that “there was tension” between them apparent before the House of Commons transport select committee last year.

“I’ve met the senior traffic commissioner,” he said. “We have agreed that this will be addressed through the Triennial Review to ensure the role is still appropriate and fit for purpose. This is due to start very soon and will report by the Autumn.”