Annual report brings welcomed news on the braking front

The Traffic Commissioners for England reinforced in their latest annual report that the non-compliant are in the minority.

After the regulators urged the industry to pay urgent attention to the safety of brakes on commercial vehicles, more and more operators have been investing in roller brake testing. Since 2014, the number of vehicles and trailers failing their MOT for poor brake performance has reduced by one third. That is a massive improvement.

Although this announcement is both positive and encouraging, there is still a way to go.

Some of the common issues still seen at Public Inquiries:

•          Vehicles tested unladen with wheels locking at low brake efforts

•          Failure of technicians to identify potentially serious road safety issues

•          Transport managers and operators that don’t understand the printouts

•          Pass printouts for vehicles where brakes are clearly not working as  

            they should

•          Lack of understanding that the PMI standard applied must be above the

            minimum MOT standard (if the vehicle is to remain safe until its next

            inspection)

View the full report here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/traffic-commissioners-annual-report-2018-to-2019