As any operator who has ever found themselves in front of a traffic commissioner at a public inquiry for vehicle condition offences will know, the DVSA’s Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness is regarded by the TC as being very close to the word of God.
While a court will pass judgement on Construction & Use offences and issue appropriate and largely predetermined punishment, the subsequent appearance before the TC is likely to be a far more forensic affair.
The TC will be concerned as to how the offence came about in the first place, and what measures have since been put in place to prevent its recurrence.
As the TCs sometimes explain, their role is not to retry the offence, or issue another punishment for it, but rather to ensure it cannot occur again. There are two ways in which the TC can do this.
The first is to satisfy themselves that the operator has reformed itself, and the second is to take it off the road. Some operators are genuinely astonished that this can happen.
The stakes here are high. The TC has the powers to curtail a licence, or end it altogether. The transport manager’s repute can be destroyed at the stroke of a pen, if the TC is not satisfied with the explanations offered. Negligent or reckless directors can be banned from the industry.
On the other hand, the TC’s examination is just as concerned with the state of play at the time of the public inquiry, as with what went on prior to the offence being committed. The Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness provides the TC with a yardstick against which the operator’s current practice and performance will be measured.
An operator who can demonstrate that their current maintenance practice is founded on and informed by the Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness is more likely to be given a warning than one whose response is “The guide to what? Never heard of it!”.
BRAKE TESTING
But the Guide itself is subject to rewriting and reform, with the latest edition being published late last year.
A constant theme of change in recent editions has been a tightening of procedures for brake testing at periodic safety inspections. This was started by the infamous Bath tipper crash of 2015.
The latest update reinforces the message that a brake test must be included in every safety inspection. While a calibrated roller tester is the best means of testing (an electronic braking performance monitoring system (EBPMS) report is an acceptable substitute), an approved and calibrated decelerometer can still be used on rigid vehicles or those that cannot undertake a roller test (a plate brake tester may also be suitable, the Guide says).
But a decelerometer will not assess the performance of individual wheel brakes, just the overall performance of the system. To ensure all axles are braking effectively, the Guide now states that temperature tests must be carried out on each brake before and after testing, and substantial temperature increases needs to be recorded at each wheel before brake performance can be judged as satisfactory.
Readings must also be consistent across each individual axle. The Guide states that tests should be carried out on laden vehicles where possible, and at least four laden tests a year are recommended.
From April of this year, if a laden test is not carried out at a safety inspection, then a competent person who understands braking systems and components must complete a risk assessment recording the reasons for this.
The risk assessment must be evaluated as part of the safety inspection to confirm that it is still relevant, and reviewed every 12 months. Where it is anticipated that there will be no change in the use of the vehicle/trailer during a 12-month period a single risk assessment may be used. Any change in use requires an updated risk assessment.
Details of what must be included in the risk assessment, including a suitable template, and who is competent to undertake it, are included in the Guide, along with a list of reasons as to why a vehicle may not be suitable for laden testing.
If EBPMS is used to monitor brake performance in place of a test at inspection, there must be an evaluation of the vehicle/trailer performance report before every safety inspection by a competent person who can interpret the data. The evaluation must be signed, dated, and attached to the vehicle record together with the performance data report. The evaluation and data report may be contained in a single document.
If EBPMS provides insufficient data to deliver a service braking performance value, an alternative method must be used to assess service braking performance and the records retained.
ACCEPTED LIMITS
Parking brake performance can be assessed by EBPMS providing the system is working correctly, and sufficient data is being captured to record the brake performance and the EBPMS data captured indicates the brakes are performing within the system’s accepted limits.
Operators must ensure that drivers carry out a ‘tug test’ when coupling the trailer to a tractor unit. This checks the function of the trailer’s parking brake as well as the integrity of the coupling. This test should be recorded, and driver defect reports should be checked for any reference to problems with the system.
All parking brake components should be checked at each inspection to ensure their correct function. EBPMS does not exempt a vehicle from undergoing a roller brake test at the annual roadworthiness test.
To allow flexibility, all vehicles can be presented for brake testing up to 14 days before the safety inspection date; this allows the operator to conduct a laden brake test during the vehicle or trailer’s normal activities without the need to specially load it as vehicles and trailers must be presented for annual test in laden condition (this has been the case since 2023).
Printed certificates will no longer be issued when a vehicle passes its annual test. The result can now be viewed, downloaded and printed by the operator from the online vehicle MOT History Service by going to this link: www.tinyurl.com/5n7fn4c4.
Failures will still result in the production of documents outlining the reasons for the ‘fail’. Operators are reminded that they should regularly check if any of their vehicles are subject to a vehicle safety recall. This can be done by visiting this link: www.tinyurl.com/9dfbjta9.
WORKSHOPS
It is well established that while an operator can outsource safety inspections to a third-party workshop, they cannot outsource the responsibility for the inspections being thorough and accurate. This makes the choosing of a competent workshop critical.
The Guide says operators must periodically review the competence of their chosen service provider, and strongly recommends choosing a workshop with a recognised accreditation.
This might be a workshop franchised by a truck or trailer manufacturer to meet its standards, or a ‘brand-agnostic’ assessment such as the IRTE National Workshop Accreditation Scheme.
This year, the industry is trialling a new Maintenance Provision Rating Scheme (MPRS), which will be based on the quality of training and competence of the engineers employed by it, and the equipment available to them within the facility.
MPRS is aimed at improving the quality of commercial vehicle maintenance facilities and provide operators with a tool by which they can assess the quality of individual workshops. A formal launch for the scheme will take place at this year’s CV Show in April/May.
