How the DVSA Uses Our Axle Pads

At the start of the business year, the DVSA announced that it planned to uncover more than 20,000 serious roadworthiness defects and traffic offences through targeted vehicle checks in 2016/17. The DVSA stated in its business plan that it would achieve this by carrying out over 188,000 targeted CV stops.

Earned Recognition

Part of this commitment is to roll out the DVSA’s Earned Recognition Scheme, which is launching early this year (2017). The earned recognition scheme is a simple premise that allows operators to prove their compliance and reduce their checks. This allows the most compliant of operations to work unhindered, saving time and money for both company and DVSA (who can now focus their effort on operators who are less compliant).

Targeting lower compliance operators involves road side weight checks, to ensure that large vehicles are not laden above legal limits. This is where our axle pads are currently being used.

A vehicle is selected for examination and guided to the check site by a police officer or DVSA Enforcement Support Officer. With our bespoke axle pads, a check site can be in any position that can accommodate the vehicle, be it at roadside, layby or service station. The portability even allows officers to pull over a CV (Cargo Vehicle) and test their conformity wherever they are stopped or have axle pads delivered to a vehicle that has already been pulled over.

Couple this technology with already prolific ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras and officers can immediately begin to target common offenders, wherever they are travelling. This specific targeting allows them to focus the majority of their time on low compliance operators.

Roadside Checks

The Axle Pads can be deployed on any flat area of land and are used to determine the weight of any vehicle. Our pads are even battery operated, so officers can deploy them where needed, without connection to a power source. Each wheel on the vehicle is driven onto the axle pads and the pads are then connected to an indicator. The weight of the vehicle is calculated and the officers can make a decision as to whether the vehicle is over loaded according to the DVSA regulations.

Officers, under the new Earned Recognition Scheme, will then adjust the operator’s compliance rating to reflect how the business conducts itself, based on current and past operations.

Of course, vehicle weight is not the only aspect of vehicle safety that officers will take into account when assessing an operator’s compliance. Officers, as they have in the past, will take vehicle road worthiness, tachograph readings and maintenance data to ensure that the vehicle and operators are driving to the highest and safest standards.

Alternatively, your company can ensure that vehicles are compliant and avoid hefty fines by purchasing axle pads or weighbridges for your fleet.  

Want to know more? Click here to learn everything there is to know about vehicle overloading.