cav551:
The traditional Tapley meter will not be acceptable, but there are several varieties of Decelerometer which can produce a print out and these are acceptable, but not every time. The wording from the DVSA is forced to admit that it may not be practicable for operators to carry out an RBT for every PMI so a decelerometer test is acceptable if a print out is attached to the records. However they will still expect to see RBT prints out for at least two PMIs during the year. These should be be laden. Like the whole of an operator’s PMI regime, it needs to be seen to be working ie if the RBT following a ‘Tapley’ Test reveals a problem or the RBT readings are just low for the type of vehicle then action needs to be taken regarding the method of brake testing as well as rectifying the mechanical problem. A laden 7.5 tonne vehicle should be achieving RBT and Tapley efficiency figures considerably in excess of the minimum pass percentage.The local ******* dealer only ever carries out unladen Decelerometer brake tests.
We still use a Tapley meter and take a photo of the result, the meter is calibrated. The printout from the electronic meter is no more authoritative, it does not know which vehicle it is in any more than the tapley does. We do a RBT after most work on the brakes though, eg shoe change etc. and before their peak seasonal use. What we are doing was deemed acceptable 2 years ago and have not seen any reason to change that. We only run 3 smallish trucks that do low mileages, mostly in summer, so obviously will not work for everyone.
Just out of interest, it is possible to use a Tapley meter to check trailer brakes but the maths is quite messy to set it up. I believe the some of the, expensive, electronic ones are also able to do that automatically ?