coiler:
Vehicles have to be in a roadworthy condition if specified on your operators licence. A vehicle that is still on your licence but you’re not using still has to have its safety inspections, as do trailers.
That does seem a little unlikely to me.
How would VOSA expect a vehicle on SORN to reach its inspection centre and if it has
stood for six weeks, what would they expect to be inspected for it to be safe to stand
for another six weeks?
Regards,
Nick.
limeyphil:
green456:
i know of a company whose ops centre was visited unannouced by Vosa on a sat aft who carried out a inspection of vehicles whilst no company employees were on site and issued a number of immediate prohibitions ( these were attached in self adhesive plasic wallets)to both a number of vehs and trls. First thing operator knew was when earliest driver mon morn phoned in from yardthat is trespass. they would have needed a warrant, or permission to enter.
so there will be a bit more to the story.
phil,the yard in question was an old mill premises which had been split into 30 plus units, there were 3 hauliers based there sharing the yard area and other businesses inside the old mill, there was 24 hr security on the gatehouse and after showing security their ID etc they were allowed access. all 3 hauliers were inspected and all 3 received immediate prohibitions. all had to have full retests to remove prohibs, may seem strange but neverless its true. was in the older days when VOSA were ministry of transport
[/quote]
WHY didnt the security call the owner to ask whether he could let them onto the property? Something not right here.
If I were the owner I would be looking for a new security guy.
coiler:
Coffeeholic:
truckyboy:
All vehicles have to be in a roadworthy condition, unless they have been sornedTotal rubbish. They have to be roadworthy when on the road and would only have to have SORN declared if they aren’t taxed. A taxed vehicle sitting in a yard with a defect and VOSA could do nothing. It could be waiting for parts to arrive to repair the defect.
Vehicles have to be in a roadworthy condition if specified on your operators licence. A vehicle that is still on your licence but you’re not using still has to have its safety inspections, as do trailers.
Yes, but the defects could be noted at those inspections and it could still sit there with them in a non roadworthy condition while waiting for repair. A vehicle could have an inspection in the yard on say a Friday and a a defect found. The company decide to get it fixed after the weekend while they get the parts and wait for a space in the workshop. It is then VOR’d and could sit there for a few days in a non roadworthy condition without attracting any prohibitions or breaking and laws or conditions of the O Licence.
Coffeeholic:
coiler:
Coffeeholic:
truckyboy:
All vehicles have to be in a roadworthy condition, unless they have been sornedTotal rubbish. They have to be roadworthy when on the road and would only have to have SORN declared if they aren’t taxed. A taxed vehicle sitting in a yard with a defect and VOSA could do nothing. It could be waiting for parts to arrive to repair the defect.
Vehicles have to be in a roadworthy condition if specified on your operators licence. A vehicle that is still on your licence but you’re not using still has to have its safety inspections, as do trailers.
Yes, but the defects could be noted at those inspections and it could still sit there with them in a non roadworthy condition while waiting for repair. A vehicle could have an inspection in the yard on say a Friday and a a defect found. The company decide to get it fixed after the weekend while they get the parts and wait for a space in the workshop. It is then VOR’d and could sit there for a few days in a non roadworthy condition without attracting any prohibitions or breaking and laws or conditions of the O Licence.
^this. If we have a vehicle vor it goes on the vor board and sits in the yard till either someone comes out to fix it or it goes for repair.
DadsRetired:
limeyphil:
green456:
i know of a company whose ops centre was visited unannouced by Vosa on a sat aft who carried out a inspection of vehicles whilst no company employees were on site and issued a number of immediate prohibitions ( these were attached in self adhesive plasic wallets)to both a number of vehs and trls. First thing operator knew was when earliest driver mon morn phoned in from yardthat is trespass. they would have needed a warrant, or permission to enter.
so there will be a bit more to the story.phil,the yard in question was an old mill premises which had been split into 30 plus units, there were 3 hauliers based there sharing the yard area and other businesses inside the old mill, there was 24 hr security on the gatehouse and after showing security their ID etc they were allowed access. all 3 hauliers were inspected and all 3 received immediate prohibitions. all had to have full retests to remove prohibs, may seem strange but neverless its true. was in the older days when VOSA were ministry of transport
WHY didnt the security call the owner to ask whether he could let them onto the property? Something not right here.
If I were the owner I would be looking for a new security guy.
I’m amazed that you think that VOSA don’t have the power to enter the premises. If you have an ‘O’ licence then you dance to their tune and part of the song is that at any time they can do unannounced visits and confiscate any records they see fit.
They would need a warrant to enter premises without permission?
VOSA wanted to come into Silverstone to check the trucks at a meeting last season. The race organisers told them to sod off. They moaned, whinged and told everyone how much authority they had, then sodded off.
The old customs and excise came onto an industrial estate where one company had relocated whilst awaiting a factory re-build after a fire. It was all private from the gates onwards and this company had three units for various parts of the processes and used an old Transit pick-up to shunt stuff about. It wasn’t taxed or MOT’d and was plainly not roadworthy, but served it’s purpose well. They dipped the tank and obviously it was full of cherry, they started to make arrangements to have it confiscated and made utter planks of themselves insisting that it had to have road derv in to run around on private property.
Sometimes, the powers that they have tend to go to their heads and any form of logic is out of the window although as others have said, I reckon there is a bit more to this story.
ShropsBri:
DadsRetired:
limeyphil:
green456:
i know of a company whose ops centre was visited unannouced by Vosa on a sat aft who carried out a inspection of vehicles whilst no company employees were on site and issued a number of immediate prohibitions ( these were attached in self adhesive plasic wallets)to both a number of vehs and trls. First thing operator knew was when earliest driver mon morn phoned in from yardthat is trespass. they would have needed a warrant, or permission to enter.
so there will be a bit more to the story.phil,the yard in question was an old mill premises which had been split into 30 plus units, there were 3 hauliers based there sharing the yard area and other businesses inside the old mill, there was 24 hr security on the gatehouse and after showing security their ID etc they were allowed access. all 3 hauliers were inspected and all 3 received immediate prohibitions. all had to have full retests to remove prohibs, may seem strange but neverless its true. was in the older days when VOSA were ministry of transport
WHY didnt the security call the owner to ask whether he could let them onto the property? Something not right here.
If I were the owner I would be looking for a new security guy.
I’m amazed that you think that VOSA don’t have the power to enter the premises. If you have an ‘O’ licence then you dance to their tune and part of the song is that at any time they can do unannounced visits and confiscate any records they see fit.
Private property, get a warrant, do what ya like. Til then, sod off and leave me alone.
As I say, I would be looking for a new security guy.
coiler:
Vehicles have to be in a roadworthy condition if specified on your operators licence. A vehicle that is still on your licence but you’re not using still has to have its safety inspections, as do trailers.
I would disagree slightly.
As long as the operator has documented evidence in the vehicle file (or computerised system if used) to show the vehicle has officially been VOR and the reasons with as much detail as possible and this explains the reason for missing the scheduled inspections then all will be fine. The vehicle must then be fully inspected before it is used again. If documents show this time line what can VOSA do? Fault found, vehicle taken off road, fault rectified, vehicle fully inspected, vehicle put back on road and ORIGINAL inspection schedule maintained.
In most cases operators fail to maintain sufficient records. A vehicle misses its 6 weekly (or whatever schedule they have) - VOSA find gaps in the maintenance records and the Operator cannot explain them. This then brings about concerns regarding their maintenance regime.
A vehicle parked in the operators yard does not need to be roadworthy at that time - even if specified on the Ops licence.
I suspect in some of these events detailed in previous psots - VOSA have evidence that the vehicle had been in use on a public road. They have attended site and inspected the vehicles - found defects that are clearly old and were clearly in existance when the vehicle was used on the public road - and the operators documented records are full of holes with no driver defect reporting system etc. A tacho confirms the vehicle was used. The defect is clearly old and existed before this. No defect sheet or records of repairs are available.
For an operator it is all about documented avidence of what has gone on. Those documents need to be very clear. I recently dealt with an operator called to a public enquiry over loose wheelnuts. A vehicle was picked up at MOT for a loose wheelnut. This prompted a VOSA visit. Records for other vehicles had the words “Loose wheelnuts” for various wheels and nothing was recorded to show they were ever retorqued. the fact these items were documented poorly was used against the operator. he was later told had the fitters written “wheel nuts retorqued” this would have been fine - fault found and recitifed. In the end he was taken to a public enquiry for having a poor maintenance regime. His repute as an operator was ‘tarnished’ and he is now on first name terms with VOSA. it is all a lot more involved than this - there was a lack of defect reports etc but VOSA certainly went to town on him and this was all started with a single ‘loose’ wheelnut.
However - ask one of his drivers what happened and it will be a completely different story.
Pete
I just been done. Had my belt undone , insecure gut with a large overhang.
turnip:
I just been done. Had my belt undone , insecure gut with a large overhang.
you knew the rules, should have used marker boards and lights.
mucker85:
They would need a warrant to enter premises without permission?
As far as I know they are warranted by the secetary of state and this may clear it up,or maybe not.
It is a serious offence to obstruct a ministry man so best be sure before doing so.
Why is it in anyones intrest to obstruct VOSA officials unless you have sompthing to hide?
If you have unroad worthy vehicles then that is your own fault
Certainly wouldnt have any objection to VOSA checking a contractors vehicle on my land.
AHT.
It’s not a case of having anything to hide. I don’t have any fiddles going on with my electric meter, but I wouldn’t want the leccy man pounding on my door at silly o’clock demanding his right to inspect it.
I had a similar thing with a planning officer who was a complete ■■■■■■ and when I put in for some planning he decided to come and measure up at 10.30 at night, lurking around my house/premises. Unfortunately for him, I have beams that activate the CCTV onto the TV.
AHT:
Why is it in anyones intrest to obstruct VOSA officials unless you have sompthing to hide?
If you have unroad worthy vehicles then that is your own fault
Certainly wouldnt have any objection to VOSA checking a contractors vehicle on my land.
That’s my thoughts as well and I should imagine it will also instantly red flag you as well.
DoYouMeanMe?:
AHT.
It’s not a case of having anything to hide. I don’t have any fiddles going on with my electric meter, but I wouldn’t want the leccy man pounding on my door at silly o’clock demanding his right to inspect it.
I had a similar thing with a planning officer who was a complete ■■■■■■ and when I put in for some planning he decided to come and measure up at 10.30 at night, lurking around my house/premises. Unfortunately for him, I have beams that activate the CCTV onto the TV.
Neaver heard of a planning official coming to measure up at 10:30 he must have been taking the ■■■■ surly? 
Are you sure it really was a planning official? we had someone come round claiming to want to read the gas meater at the time we didnt even have gas in the road, shortly after a shead got broken into
DoYouMeanMe?:
AHT.
It’s not a case of having anything to hide. I don’t have any fiddles going on with my electric meter, but I wouldn’t want the leccy man pounding on my door at silly o’clock demanding his right to inspect it.
I had a similar thing with a planning officer who was a complete ■■■■■■ and when I put in for some planning he decided to come and measure up at 10.30 at night, lurking around my house/premises. Unfortunately for him, I have beams that activate the CCTV onto the TV.
starfighter:
Coffeeholic:
coiler:
Coffeeholic:
truckyboy:
All vehicles have to be in a roadworthy condition, unless they have been sornedTotal rubbish. They have to be roadworthy when on the road and would only have to have SORN declared if they aren’t taxed. A taxed vehicle sitting in a yard with a defect and VOSA could do nothing. It could be waiting for parts to arrive to repair the defect.
Vehicles have to be in a roadworthy condition if specified on your operators licence. A vehicle that is still on your licence but you’re not using still has to have its safety inspections, as do trailers.
Yes, but the defects could be noted at those inspections and it could still sit there with them in a non roadworthy condition while waiting for repair. A vehicle could have an inspection in the yard on say a Friday and a a defect found. The company decide to get it fixed after the weekend while they get the parts and wait for a space in the workshop. It is then VOR’d and could sit there for a few days in a non roadworthy condition without attracting any prohibitions or breaking and laws or conditions of the O Licence.
^this. If we have a vehicle vor it goes on the vor board and sits in the yard till either someone comes out to fix it or it goes for repair.
when i worked at castleford for a less than respectable haulier , all unroadworthy vehicles HAD to have a VOR sign in the window as we were visited by vosa quite often this satisfied the inspectors and the vehicles were not inspected ,we soon had to have more signs made 
As i understand it, vosa can turn up at any time to inspect your vehicles. You have the right to refuse them entry but this may be a matter of judgement as to how you feel they would take this.If they turn up with the police, then you’re in serious [zb].
Back to the point in question, during an o licence inspection many years ago, the inspector was poking the brake light switch on a tk and said it looked fragile, while doing so he broke the the switch, when it came to trying the brake the lights they obviously wouldn’t work, the pg9 i then recieved for this nearly ended up up somewhere that the vosa man could have found slightly uncomfortable!!
For those who think VOSA can just walk in off the street, they are mistaken, there are dozens of stories were they have been refused permission, in fact there is a long story on this forum about Portsmouth Ferry Terminal allowing them access and how unsporting that was. They have police accreditation to stop vehicles if they use a trained “stopping officer,” but they still need a police officer to enter premises looking for dodgy records.
They are a regular sight on Hull Docks and others but there was a case in 12 Quays when VOSA were a bit miffed because the port wouldn’t let them on site as they were driving customers away 
Again I think there is more to this story, and the VOSA Galaxy followed the vehicle into the yard and they were not challenged
