Skip to main content

UK vehicle agency introduces remote enforcement

The UK Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) is to introduce remote enforcement for more compliant transport operators. The remote enforcement office (REO) will be tested by VOSA in an initial six month trial scheduled to start in October.
September 17, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
The UK Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) is to introduce remote enforcement for more compliant transport operators.  The remote enforcement office (REO) will be tested by VOSA in an initial six month trial scheduled to start in October.

VOSA examiners currently visit an operator’s premises to inspect vehicles; the REO will request relevant information to be sent to its office where it will be reviewed and recommendations made to the operator.

According to VOSA, introducing an efficient, less burdensome method for dealing with the more compliant operators will release resources to target the serious/serially non-compliant operator. The more encounters a non-compliant operator has the greater the cost to their operation, thus removing any competitive advantage by running a non-compliant operation.

VOSA will use an operator’s history of compliance to identify those most suitable for this approach and will monitor data from these operators to ensure they remain complaint.

Commenting after the recent Freight Transport Association Transport Manager Conference, VOSA’s Richard Denby said: “VOSA has been listening to feedback from the industry and the Trade Associations, especially the FTA and are looking to change the way we deliver enforcement. We want compliance to equal good business value, and to ensure that a non compliant operator does not have a competitive edge over a compliant operator and cannot have a greater profit margin than a compliant operator. We want a level playing field so that non compliant operators cannot unfairly bid for contracts above a compliant operator.”

Related Content

  • Troopers in the TOC – a recipe for success
    May 11, 2016
    A traffic incident management project in Arizona has speeded up reopening closed lanes and saved an estimated $165m through reducing traffic delays. The process for clearing roadway incidents on the Maricopa County freeways in Arizona has always reflected industry best practice with, for instance, a live feed of freeway cameras to the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) dispatch centre and the City of Phoenix Fire dispatch centre. The region has nearly 480km (300 miles) of freeway connecting 27 citi
  • The challenging European road to carbon neutrality and the need for distance-based charging
    November 1, 2023
    Fuel taxes are falling and EVs have the potential to create social equity issues. The answer may lie in expanding the use of technology which has successfully been used for two decades with trucks
  • User based insurance is helping good drivers and identifying the bad ones
    November 28, 2013
    Thomas Hallauer gives an overview of Usage Based Insurance (UBI), an industry that is putting telematic devices into more vehicles than fleet management ever did. The insurance market is going through a transformation phase never seen before. Insurers have not only started to track individual cars for Usage Based Insurance (UBI), they are also using the technology to enhance consumer services as more drivers join up to these schemes. Progressive Insurance in the US has 1.4 million customers signed up to
  • On a WIM – a global view of weigh in motion
    May 25, 2016
    Q-Free’s Andrew Lees looks at regional characteristics and technology trends in the global Weigh-In-Motion market. The principles of Weigh-In-Motion (WIM) are well established. Data derived from vehicles passing over in-ground sensors can be interpreted for vehicle classification (axle counts and spacing) and positive identification (especially when linked to image capture) applications as well as to derive individual axle and gross vehicle weight (GVW).