22-08-2013

The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) has warned the light commercial vehicle (LCV) drivers of the UK that they are ramping up both roadside inspections and other enforcement activities in response to the increasing number of light commercial vehicles failing their MOTs.

The reason for this additional activity is down to a reported MOT failure rate of 50 per cent for LCVs, and VOSA have announced that they are not prepared to sit back and wait for this situation to deteriorate further.

In terms of VOSA’s powers, if you fall foul of a roadside check, the organisation has the authority to not only issue a fine and a prohibition notice, but in extreme cases, you could even end up in jail.

Of course VOSA will not take a haphazard approach to the locations they choose to station their roadside inspectors. The official word from VOSA is that ‘tactical checks’ will be conducted in ‘appropriate locations’, which means they have the information they need to know on which routes offences are most likely to occur.

The 50 per cent MOT failure rate statistic also has ramifications for those looking to buy a second hand van. The numbers suggest that as many as one in every two vehicles available for purchase has not been properly looked after. It is expected that vans will go through a tougher time than cars due to their heavy usage, and as a result will age more quickly in the majority of cases; however, failing to properly maintain a van is clearly a false economy.

Regular maintenance of LCVs is the most cost effective method of keeping vehicles in a road worthy condition. There are of course plenty of measures van drivers themselves can take to prevent their van falling into a state disrepair, although, there are also some problems which can only be fixed by the professionals.

The number of LCVs on the UK’s roads continues to grow, so much so that just under half of the four million commercial vehicles are now LCVs, which, given the latest MOT failure rates, means that close to a million LCVs on our roads could be unroadworthy.