The 2018 Commercial Vehicle Show saw the Road Haulage Association (RHA) leading a delegation of hauliers and Authorised Testing Facility operators to the Driver Vehicle Standards Agency stand at the CV Show to demand answers to the ATF tester crisis.
Delegation leader, RHA Head of Licensing and Infrastructure Policy, Tom Cotton said: “Many ATF testers and RHA members are angry as the lack of qualified testers is already having a negative impact on their businesses. We are urging DVSA staff to raise their concerns through the DfT. We hope that their response will be both swift and positive.”
RHA Chief Executive, Richard Burnett said: “This is a crisis for hauliers and ATF operators alike. Hauliers across the country are now struggling to get their trucks through roadworthiness testing – the equivalent of the MOT – because the DVSA cannot attract and retain enough qualified testers to meet the demand.
“If hauliers are unable to keep their vehicles compliant and on the road then the risk to their businesses and the economy is huge. We also know of hauliers having to book testing slots far from their operating centres – thereby costing them money and of course time.”
“This is a disaster for hauliers, for ATF operators and for the supply chain as a whole and we urge the DVSA to improve pay and conditions for ATF testers to attract more staff.”
The RHA is also urging the Government to offer PSV testers additional training to qualify them to assess HGVs and to redeploy roadside vehicle examiners into ATFs until sufficient numbers of dedicated staff have been recruited.
