Book Description
This report examines the extent to which the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (the Agency) is effective in targeting high risk vehicles and whether its approach to enforcement is appropriate for today's world. The Agency has successfully increased by over 25 per cent the number of dangerous vehicles and drivers that it removed from the roads in recent years. There is scope to do better by bringing the Agency's working practices up to date to reflect current road traffic patterns and the opportunities afforded by technology and working with others. More needs to be done to address the significant risk to road safety posed by foreign commercial vehicles. They appear to contribute little in the way of revenue and pose a particular challenge in terms of enforcing regulations. The Department for Transport and the Agency have not done enough to secure access to HM Revenue and Customs' Freight Targeting Database which would allow the Agency to target non-compliant vehicles and drivers as they enter the country and so prevent them from travelling on Britain's roads. The Agency needs to develop its targeting systems further so that they reflect better the known risks to road safety. Likewise the location of staff and checksites needs to reflect more closely current traffic patterns. The Department's new Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) compliance strategy is under development and provides an opportunity to make better use of data to analyse risk and to target resources more effectively.
