摘要: |
Vehicle testing has had a difficult few years. Less than a decade after the ATF network was originally set up in 2009-2010, DVSA was cancelling an 'unacceptable' number of tests due to lack of testers in 2017. That led to the formation of an improvement programme in 2018 . Also that year, heavy vehicles including mobile cranes and breakdown vehicles which were previously exempt from annual servicing came into scope, adding to the demand. In 2018-2019, there were 432,778 HGV tests, 254,439 trailer tests and 77,766 PSV tests carried out. And then came COVID, which brought a hard stop to all testing for three months from 23 March 2020. Later in the year, new legislation (the Business and Planning Act 2020) allowed testing to resume, but in a sequence prioritised by risk. Accompanying the new law was the demand from Parliament for a review of the system to determine if it is fit for purpose, if it can be improved to meet customer needs while delivering road safety and environmental benefits, considering both business as usual and the March-August 2020 period. |