By Vivienne Russell
8 January 2010
More dangerous lorries and buses are being removed from the roads by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency, the National Audit Office has found.
Vosa prevented 36,500 unsound commercial vehicles and drivers from operating in 2008/09, a 26% increase on the previous year.
But the government spending watchdog said the agency could improve the effectiveness of its roadside checks, which focus too much on vehicle safety and less on driver performance and behaviour, which is the chief cause of accidents.
Better located stopping sites and more consistently applied stoppage powers would help Vosa maximise the impact of its work, the NAO said.
NAO head Amyas Morse said: ‘Vosa needs to focus its resources on those activities and areas where it can have most impact: for example, by looking at where its staff and stopping sites are located around the country. It needs to help to educate commercial drivers and properly identify those vehicles which pose the greatest danger.
‘It also needs to work with other organisations, at home and abroad, to ensure that drivers and vehicles from outside the UK are as safe as those from within the UK.’
The agency spent £36.6m on enforcement of commercial vehicle regulations in 2008/09. Although the number of accidents involving commercial vehicles is decreasing, more than 17,000 were involved in road traffic accidents in 2008. Almost one in ten fatal accidents in 2008 involved a heavy goods vehicle.
