On monday, a mate of mine was driving round the south side of Exeter on the A30, when he was passed by - what he claims was a Highways Agency Ford Galaxy, which then proceeded to pull in front of him, and illustrated for him to follow. He was then pulled over and had his card taken out of the Tacho and inspected by a HA official.
Now I dont doubt his accuracy - partly as I was on the phone to him at the time, so I know that he was pulled. I was sceptical as to it being a HA official, though.
Can they pull lorries over, and if so since when?
I was under the impression that it was only VOSA, police and yourself that could remove the drivers card from the tacho ( under normal circumstances )■■?
It would have been DVSA, they use Ford Galaxys, in the same colour battenberg livery as HE traffic officer vehicles.
dvsa use galaxys, highways are usually in 4x4’s
I remember reading something about this a while back and found an article on it…did it take off or was it eventually panned? tinyurl.com/zpscyg3
He’s getting confused between the 2. Highways agency don’t have any ford galaxy and always use 4x4 and they don’t have power to stop you. DVSA (VOSA) are the ones that use the ford galaxies.
Rowley010:
He’s getting confused between the 2. Highways agency don’t have power to stop you.
Not quite correct, HETOs can stop you, but only for Traffic management to control an incident, ie. Rolling block. OR if they spot something unsafe about your vehicle / load, and once you’ve sorted the problem you’re away again with them assisting you to get off the H/S. Every time this has happened the driver has been grateful to be informed.
Some HATOs around Doxey M6 have been trained and given appropriate warrant card to act on behalf of DVSA and for that purpose stop or direct commercial vehicles. They can’t actually check anything or take any action.
Apparently this was a successful trial and was meant to get rolled out. Don’t know if it did.
However, as has been said, HATO don’t use Galaxies.
Thanks guys, and I will pass on that he was wrong. 
shep532:
Some HATOs around Doxey M6 have been trained and given appropriate warrant card to act on behalf of DVSA and for that purpose stop or direct commercial vehicles. They can’t actually check anything or take any action.
Apparently this was a successful trial and was meant to get rolled out. Don’t know if it did.
However, as has been said, HATO don’t use Galaxies.
Correct and there’s no need to remove the drivers digi card to make any checks