Now I’ve worked for company’s who were targeted by vosa,pulled every time we passed them,pulled into vosa check points,I always remember being pulled into 1 checkpoint to find 2 of ours already in there ( we only had 4 trucks) .
We were too be fair up too all sorts ,but we were only ever stopped out on the road,I can never remember them comming into any of the company’s I worked for ,how serious would it have too be for them to come into a company to check records,trucks ,tachos etc etc,do they even do it,I’ve never seen it ,just been targeted at every opertunitywhilst out on the road ta
Keep getting tugged by VOSA cos the company are on the RED LIST… and if your on that list expect to be continually tugged and checked…
Last Co I was with, we had Vosa turn up in the yard, let alone being stopped on the road.
apparently they are coming to our yard tomorrow.
dozy:
Now I’ve worked for company’s who were targeted by vosa,pulled every time we passed them,pulled into vosa check points,I always remember being pulled into 1 checkpoint to find 2 of ours already in there ( we only had 4 trucks) .
We were too be fair up too all sorts ,but we were only ever stopped out on the road,I can never remember them comming into any of the company’s I worked for ,how serious would it have too be for them to come into a company to check records,trucks ,tachos etc etc,do they even do it,I’ve never seen it ,just been targeted at every opertunitywhilst out on the road ta
Unless you were in the yard at the time, you might not know they’d been visiting.
Where there is some non-compliance DVSA will give notice they are coming and ask for records (tacho, vehicle inspections) to be ready.
Really bad operators will get a surprise visit: and that’s an experience not to be forgotten. DVSA will be likely to bring police, DWP and HMRC with them.They can look at pretty much anything, take papers and computers away etc. Vehicle tracking records get matched against tachos, the lot.
I know of one haulier who got a bit lippy and the directors were all arrested and taken away in handcuffs by the police.
I worked for a firm who were on a green light with vosa and the maintenance was brilliant,but driver hours were often bent and sometimes ignored,I never ever got pulled in and never saw vosa at the yard even after a couple of blokes who left had tipped vosa off about them.
years ago on Gen haulage DfT as it was then would write saying they would be in next ■■ and wanted to see veh x y and z along with records for the vehicles, then they would just spot check 2 or 3 drivers tacho’s for the past month or 2. we wouldn’t see them again unless something went wrong …
yorkshire terrier:
I worked for a firm who were on a green light with vosa and the maintenance was brilliant,but driver hours were often bent and sometimes ignored,I never ever got pulled in and never saw vosa at the yard even after a couple of blokes who left had tipped vosa off about them.
This is why OCRS is so badly flawed. All you need to do is make sure trucks pass MOT first time, once a year, and you can effectively do what you want for the rest of the year.
I don’t really understand why first time mot pass is such a big deal.
I don’t really understand why first time mot pass is such a big deal.
because a vehicle that is going into a garage to be checked/maintained every six weeks should not be failing an MOT .any MOT testable parts of the vehicle should be spot on
Latique:
I don’t really understand why first time mot pass is such a big deal.because a vehicle that is going into a garage to be checked/maintained every six weeks should not be failing an MOT .any MOT testable parts of the vehicle should be spot on
Meaningless. Too many ways to fail an MOT that have nothing to do with the quality of the maintenance regime. Very easy to have a poor maintenance regime and intensive focus purely on MOT prep.
Also massively favours large operators with their own test lane.
Go figure, failed mot on monitor (for horse area!) by own admission if close proximity or reversing camera would have not been a fail. 48 hours later 6weekly picks up badly worn track rod ends and drag link arm! Mot didn’t notice! They make it up as they go along
Own Account Driver:
This is why OCRS is so badly flawed. All you need to do is make sure trucks pass MOT first time, once a year, and you can effectively do what you want for the rest of the year.
Not quite, I’m “Green Light” but I was pulled in at Tiverton last month for a full monty check, red diesel, tacho, licensing etc.
There were three Police motorbikes at the Cullompton slip road and they had obviously been detailed to stop any three trucks in a row, one of which was mine.
VOSA vehicles generally ignore me, I presume they are using ANPR.
I have always been told that VOSA of old would always want to see that you knew the rules and were playing by them. If they stopped a company vehicle at the roadside, then minor infringements were chalked off - dependant on the attitude of the driver of course.
Dont know how this new mob will go about things… We had a visit from them about 14 months ago and were told that we were over complicating things!!!
Couldn’t understand this as I thought our systems were basic… They worked but were basic. So we simplified things and the status quo has continued.
We still get pulled now and again… the last was in Dover about 4 weeks ago, and the driver and vehicle were given a thorough examination. I was weight checked in Rugby about 2 months ago by PC plod, he was astounded we could get 31 tonne payload on an artic with an Aggregate trailer and still be under the 44010 mark!
Yes 10kg over but hardly crime of the century… His words!
lightning:
Yes 10kg over but hardly crime of the century… His words!
was the bacon sarnie you had earlier 
lightning:
I have always been told that VOSA of old would always want to see that you knew the rules and were playing by them. If they stopped a company vehicle at the roadside, then minor infringements were chalked off - dependant on the attitude of the driver of course.
I make you correct. If there was something wrong they would have to weight up the severity of it Vs your likely knowledge/attitude to contest it.
Thats why we now have in place a FPN system. Its cheaper and quicker to administer than a reduction from a Court for a Guilty plea.
dozy:
Now I’ve worked for company’s who were targeted by vosa,pulled every time we passed them,pulled into vosa check points,I always remember being pulled into 1 checkpoint to find 2 of ours already in there ( we only had 4 trucks) .
We were too be fair up too all sorts ,but we were only ever stopped out on the road,I can never remember them comming into any of the company’s I worked for ,how serious would it have too be for them to come into a company to check records,trucks ,tachos etc etc,do they even do it,I’ve never seen it ,just been targeted at every opertunitywhilst out on the road ta
Somebody somewhere in the Company has been naughty or suspected of being naughty,or probably been seen by a VOSA man on his way home spotted a defect and thought they might be worth a look at even though the defect has been rectified,who knows.
Own Account Driver:
yorkshire terrier:
I worked for a firm who were on a green light with vosa and the maintenance was brilliant,but driver hours were often bent and sometimes ignored,I never ever got pulled in and never saw vosa at the yard even after a couple of blokes who left had tipped vosa off about them.This is why OCRS is so badly flawed. All you need to do is make sure trucks pass MOT first time, once a year, and you can effectively do what you want for the rest of the year.
I don’t really understand why first time mot pass is such a big deal.
Here’s the argument:
The TCs and VOSA/DVSA will say.
-
You are required to keep the truck roadworthy. It should be driver-checked every day and workshop checked typically every six weeks. The TC gives you an O licence only on condition that you are able and prepared to do this.
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The annual test is the bare minimum for roadworthiness on the day…it’s not an assessment of whether the truck will still be roadworthy the next month, week or even day. You know it’s coming, you book the date of the test, and if you can’t get the truck up to meet that minimum standard for just one chosen day in the whole year, what does that say about you?
Luckily the industry has taken heed, and the vast majority of trucks do now pass first time.
Vans? Last time I looked, more than half fail their first test each year.
If you have the odd bit here & there on your card you don’t want to be working for a firm that is in Vosa’s sights as it’s your pocket they’ll be in.
Latique:
I don’t really understand why first time mot pass is such a big deal.because a vehicle that is going into a garage to be checked/maintained every six weeks should not be failing an MOT .any MOT testable parts of the vehicle should be spot on
Who does actual mechanic’s service checks as often as every 6 weeks? Every 3 months maybe…
What about Emissions? - They can be a “MOT pass” one day, and be ‘just over’ on SO2, CO, or NO2 the next - and be an MOT fail that isn’t picked up until the next service check - possibly weeks away…
When I buy a second hand car - I always like to look at the “advisories”. If the item “about to fall over” is bad enough, I won’t buy no matter how cheap it is. I’m very suspicious of MOTs with “no advisories whatsoever” as well - could be a conjured up MOT because a car showroom’s gaffer has a brother who runs a mechanics workshop or something… I did get one good deal once though - The vendor was saying “This car has a brand new cat converter on it”. When he couldn’t produce the “manufacturer’s guarantee” - I asked for a significant discount - which I got - no quibble. 
(The discount was more than the cost of getting another one put in myself!) That car subsequently lasted me 6 years - the longest I’ve ever made a second hand car last for.
(I buy 'em, and run 'em into the ground - I’ve never actually ‘sold a car on’ in my life - only scrapped/PX’d them!)
The reason they got a hard on for MOT passes is because too many people were using the test as a diagnostic tool, send an old snotter in for test, repair/replace what they found, hope it lasts a year and repeat…
Then they started concentrating on silly things like headlight alignment at test and in roadside inspections they went after seemingly trivial things like the green ABS light that you can’t even see in the mirrors.
Now think about that, if they look at trivial things like that and all is good, that’s a pretty good indication that you’re on top of things and that you’re taking things seriously.