Does anybody know the rules in relation to making temporary repairs in order for the driver to return back to his base? I am thinking mainly artics here and those which have suffered a failed brake chamber / air bag failure and which are empty. Can the offending brake be would off?
Fitters do it all the time… 1 chamber I can’t see much of a prob as for the bag you could do more damage depending if loaded and distance .other than that don’t know.
Although some fitters do this, this isn’t allowed as any vehicle on the road has to be roadworthy.
I think the practice is fairly common place, but I’m not convinced on it being legal.
We were bringing a hire trailer from the hire company premises for MOT prep then MOT.
Unfortunately he was pulled by VOSA who found a missing brake chamber. Fitter explained trailer empty, being pulled by workshop unit going for repair and not a hire & reward unit and that he had walk round checked it but obviously not crawled underneath.
We got a delayed prohibition after a lot of fuss and everyone crawling underneath for a look.
This then hit the OCRS score and ultimately we stopped doing that work because the trailers we were collecting were in bad state after long term hire or storage.
I asked VOSA what else we could do - they said low loader or take it straight to a pre booked MOT - otherwise it must be roadworthy