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Topic of the Month
September 2009

Are VOSA targeting the right vehicles?

The recent House of Commons Transport Select Committee report on the enforcement activities of VOSA over the past three years hit the headlines for highlighting the high percentage of un-roadworthy foreign vehicles. However, there is little room for complacency amongst the home fleet, as the number of prohibitions issued to UK vehicles doubled.

The Select Committee looked at how the use of software, such as the Operator Compliance Recognition Score had increased the effectiveness of VOSA's enforcement activities.  The OCRS grades operators using historic data from annual test scores, roadside and fleet checks and prosecution records.  The rule of thumb is that if you have had problems in the past, then you are more likely to be targeted by VOSA, however, for new operators, VOSA produce a predicted score, based on the type of licence and the size of the fleet. 

Although the Select Committee acknowledged that OCRS had allowed VOSA to direct its activities towards those operators most likely to be running un-roadworthy vehicles, they warned that VOSA must not rely on this alone but must continue to make use of other techniques including random spot checks, in order to continue to encourage operators to maintain high standards.  The Committee also expressed concerns about the use of OCRS scores as a general indicator of operator reliability by third parties such as insurance companies.  The scores need careful interpretation and should not be regarded as a general indicator of reliability or quality for unrelated purposes.

So what should operators do to ensure that their vehicles are not targeted unnecessarily?   The first thing is to periodically obtain a copy of the OCRS score.   The score will vary throughout the year.  It will depend on the length of time since the last inspection and will be lower when the vehicles are due for annual test.  Make sure that outside contractors advise of test pass rates and the imposition of variation prohibitions; don't assume that vehicles have passed their test first time.  Make sure that the information held by VOSA is correct; satisfactory as well as unsatisfactory checks should be on the record.  Use the OCRS as a management technique;  it can be used to target resources on specific drivers who may need additional training and indicate the effectiveness of the maintenance budget.