Dangerous Foreign Lorries

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Tue 25 Aug 2009 15:49
Dangerous Foreign Lorries - daveyjp
Yesterday morning our local radio station had a "shock headline" piece about the number of foreign registered lorries which failed roadside inspections.

The piece said 47% checked by VOSA had serious safety issues.

As usual there was the good old Brit wagon driver saying how wonderful our system was, apparently we have 6 weekly servicing and checks to ensure the roads aren't full of UK registered death trap wagons and other countries simply don't have the checks we do.

By the end of the day this story, on the same station, suddenly contained info on the number of UK registered wagons which failed. Considering the earlier report stating how good we were in this Country at checking I was expecting the figure to be much lower than foreign failures.

It was 37%.

Considering VOSA will probably look at far more UK registered vehicles than foreign ones it didn't make us out to be much better than 'Johnny Foreigner' so why the emphasis by MPs who compiled the report?

Fact is the inspection system is obviously not good enough anywhere in the EU.

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Tue 25 Aug 2009 15:55
Dangerous Foreign Lorries - bathtub tom
>>Fact is the inspection system is obviously not good enough anywhere in the EU.

So the conclusion is, all lorries need to be inspected more regularly.

Before this degenerates into another 'let's bash the lorry driver' thread, I wonder what the figures would be for other vehicles?
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Tue 25 Aug 2009 16:10
Dangerous Foreign Lorries - jc2
I pointed out to someone in a carpark that one of their front tyres was totally bald-not just low on tread-not an old car either.The reply was "It's going in for a service in a couple of weeks-it'll get done then!!"
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Tue 25 Aug 2009 19:01
Dangerous Foreign Lorries - Harleyman
All O-licence holders are required to have their vehicles inspected regularly, I think the default period is every six weeks. Ours are also inspected by an FTA (Freight Transport Association) examiner at regular intervals. This is in addition to regular servicing.

Furthermore drivers are required, on pain of disciplinary action, to record and report vehicle defects on a daily basis; the usual check is tyres, wheelnuts, lights, oil, coolant level, reflectors and screenwash/wipers as an absolute minimum.

It gets to be a habit quite quickly.

How many car drivers can truthfully say they come even close to that?

Thank you Tom BTW for your comment.

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Wed 26 Aug 2009 09:54
Dangerous Foreign Lorries - pda
Another thing to throw into those statistics is that VOSA would be stopping all foreign registered lorries but they only target 'known offenders' with UK ones.

They have a so called traffic light system on their computers that flags every haulage company with their track record of test passes and failures and roadside check results.

If that flags up as green then you are mostly left alone on VOSA checks.

Pat
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