I have a question that could be misinterpreted! Can I say at the beginning I’m not trying to skimp on safety or operate a vehicle dangerously!
I’m about to start an application for a restricted O license for a single vehicle, and am trying to sort something out in my mind.
How frequently do you generally have to get vehicles inspected under the maintenance contract you are obliged to have? Is there any flexibility in this? Can regular stringent checks by a non-mechanic also form part of a maintenance plan?
I ask because the vehicle in question will be spending a fair amount of time in Europe. The idea is that is goes to a venue, and would usually be parked up for 3-4 weeks there. At the moment there are 4 European venues where it would be for 3-4 weeks, and if they fell on consecutive months the costs of operating would obviously be higher if it needed to come back in the middle to Carlisle, UK for an inspection.
Thanks for helping out a newbie to this, any thoughts or advice welcome
Tim
With the amount it sounds like it’s going to be parked up you could maybe stretch inspections to 10-12 weeks (12 weekly is really the absolute maximum). Do be careful of maintenance providers suggesting more frequent inspections than may well be required for your mileage.Theoretically it’s supposed to be going to your named maintenance provider but I doubt there would be an issue if you used a garage in Europe if an inspection did fall due then.
Obviously you would want to take it in to your regular place in the UK before departing even if it had only been in a fortnight before. I wouldn’t think you’d get any grief unless you were on the radar for other issues. In this country if, for example, your regular garage was closed for a fortnight due to unforeseen circumstances. I’m 100% certain they would rather you took it somewhere else suitable rather than skip the inspection.
Also it’s perfectly feasible to do your own inspection if you have suitable equipment and VOSA do provide plenty of sensible guidance on how to do this. However, I think it would be best to apply for an o-licence with a letter of intent from a 3rd party provider and get a year or two under your belt otherwise I think it may cause your licence application and operations to come under more scrutiny. You do really need to know what you’re about with lorries to a fair level before you could do your own inspections though.
Take a look at the VOSA Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness. A useful publication which contains a chart on how frequent inspections should be depending on distance covered per year and type of work.
dft.gov.uk/vosa/repository/M … V_1110.pdf
We are on 12 weeks inspections, what I tend to do if I know the truck will be away during an inspection weeks is get te inspection done before it goes away.
I’m also sure I’ve read in a vosa publication that if you can’t get the truck inspected when its due because of operational reasons, it can be done at te first available opportunity, but the rest of the inspections must be done on schedule. ie, if you miss a 12 week inspection by a week te next inspection period will be 11 weeks not 12.
It’s worth talking to vosa, I’ve found them quite helpful on things like this.
Thank you all for very helpful replies. Appreciate it
Tim
when I first started driving I was also on the spanners and the lorries were going to ireland and they were serviced before they went and inspected/services when they came back
HTH