are 6 weekly checks compulsery? whats involved,does it have to be done by somone fully qualified? would the vehicle have to be put on rollers for a brake check? thanks
six week checks are part of the conditions of your o licence, and must be carried out by a qualified person, and a record keep of defects found and who repaired them.
if those records are not avalible when mr vosa man comes a knocking watch the s**** hit the fan 
sorry forgot roller brake test is not required, it is just a visual inspection 
i had my lorry done at a workshop that didn’t have a rollers, so the answer to that one is no
it’s not written in stone that it has to be 6 weeks 
can be more can be less 
VOSA’s Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness says :
The frequency at which inspections are undertaken should be determined by assessing the level of mechanical degradation likely to be incurred over a period as a result of the vehicle’s usage. This will depend on such factors as:
- the type of vehicle, the nature of its load and theequipment and fittings it carries or supports;
- the type and range of operations on which it is likely to be engaged;
- the type of terrain and the nature of the environment in which it operates or is likely to operate; and
- the distance and speeds at which it travels and the journey times.
Assessing the above factors for each vehicle will, in the majority of cases, enable a time based programme of inspections to be
formulated. Some operations, however, are subject to continuous change, or vehicles can frequently be re-assigned alternative tasks or
routes, making the adoption of a strictly timebased inspection programme impracticable.
Mileage-based inspection programmes may be more suitable for some operators but will need to be linked to time.
The resulting intervals in time between mileagebased inspections will need to be consistent with the guidance in Annex 4 (page 28).
biggusdickusgb:
i had my lorry done at a workshop that didn’t have a rollers, so the answer to that one is no
If you get a few test fails, on brakes, you will be strongly advised to get a brake test done at inspections. Mine gets done regularly, but normally on the unit solo, so the results are not worth the paper they’re printed on
The person does’nt have to be qualified, just competent. An inspection pit under a roof is prefered. Rollers not required. It is after all just a paper trail that leads back to the operator the the event of something happening, no matter who did the inspection.
renaultman:
biggusdickusgb:
i had my lorry done at a workshop that didn’t have a rollers, so the answer to that one is noIf you get a few test fails, on brakes, you will be strongly advised to get a brake test done at inspections. Mine gets done regularly, but normally on the unit solo, so the results are not worth the paper they’re printed on
except VOSA are being ■■■■ on brake tests around here, if you take a truck for a voluntary brake test a couple of days before a test and fail they have been known to PG9 the truck which in my opinion is worse for your O licence than a MOT fail
fortunately it wasn’t mine
Denis F:
renaultman:
biggusdickusgb:
i had my lorry done at a workshop that didn’t have a rollers, so the answer to that one is noIf you get a few test fails, on brakes, you will be strongly advised to get a brake test done at inspections. Mine gets done regularly, but normally on the unit solo, so the results are not worth the paper they’re printed on
except VOSA are being ■■■■ on brake tests around here, if you take a truck for a voluntary brake test a couple of days before a test and fail they have been known to PG9 the truck
fortunately it wasn’t mine
And if you get it brake tested elsewhere, and it passes, yet fails at the test station, your original one means nowt 
Denis F:
except VOSA are being ■■■■ on brake tests around here, if you take a truck for a voluntary brake test a couple of days before a test and fail they have been known to PG9 the truck
fortunately it wasn’t mine
So are VOSA a safety agency as they claim to be or more an enforcement.
I remember being PG9’D on a Police/Vosa pulling day and summonsed for, something like “secondary handbrake a few % below efficiency”, 2 weeks after my 6 weekly check, they were very reluctant to even give me the option of going 500M to take the truck back to my operating centre to clean it out (concrete mixer),
there were no rollers at the workshop i used which were very good.
It was case withdrawn at court as paperwork/summons stated i was loaded, contrary to my delivery notes etc showing i was unloaded.
One of mine got a pull at Warminster on a Monday morning. I had just fitted a new silencer the day before and the truck had passed its test 2 weeks before. It wasn’t due for any inspection as I had had the conditions changed to six weekly on my O licence. The VOSA man found that a weld around one of the rear wing stays was cracked. It wasn’t loose, as they slotted into a tube, but he PG 9’d the vehicle and tried to get me to have a mobile welder brought out. He also said that it had an oil leak, which it didn’t. He hadn’t put anything underneath to see if the oil had already been spilled.
So the PG 9 was immediate, and he wanted it repaired on the services site. The driver called me and managed to persuade the joker to speak with me. After fairly serious debate, and after I had twigged who I was dealing with, (he had tried to screw me a while before because I refused to show him my discs, saying I would show them to someone who knew what he was doing.), we came to an agreement where the driver could bobtail to Westbury, get the stay welded and come back to get the PG9 lifted. Of course, because the guy was a jack bottom, he gave me an S rated PG9, which meant full retest and inquisition from VOSA.
At the retest, they found nothing wrong, and no oil leaks, so I wrote the the TC and suggested that there was some vindictive behaviour, that they were welcome to inspect my vehicles, OC etc, but that I thought they would be wasting their time.
Got a letter back say no further action.
Reason for this epistle is that it is all down to the VOSA man. He says what he considers is right. In all my time I have only met a few decent roadsiders. The one in Dover port is a good guy who knows both ends of the scale, but the Western Traffic one is a fool who obviously gets told ‘no’ too often.