VOSA checkpoints

Author
Discussion

Plastic chicken

Original Poster:

383 posts

211 months

Sunday 7th April 2013
quotequote all
Say I'm driving down a motorway, like the M74 heading south near J15, and the sign directs LGVs to enter the checkpoint, and I ignore it and drive on, just like the guy in front of me....would we be breaking any laws?
Opinions & experiences welcome.
P.S. the above scenario is obviously purely hypothetical....

Humper

946 posts

169 months

Sunday 7th April 2013
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" If you fail to stop, the details of the incident will be noted and a report will be submitted. This could lead to your licence being revoked."

Thats what the DFT says, hypothetically..........



Though there is usually a plod car sitting on the wee hump for that purpose, id reckon yer safe?

Tomo1971

1,157 posts

164 months

Sunday 7th April 2013
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Humper said:
" If you fail to stop, the details of the incident will be noted and a report will be submitted. This could lead to your licence being revoked."

Thats what the DFT says, hypothetically..........



Though there is usually a plod car sitting on the wee hump for that purpose, id reckon yer safe?
I always assumed that goods vehicles were to move to the inside lane and then only move to the checkpoint 'if directed'.... could you imagine all the goods vehicles passing having to pull in... that one is quite a large area but im sure you would struggle to get more than 40 HGV's in there safely.... and 40 could pass that point in 5 minutes or less.

s p a c e m a n

11,002 posts

155 months

Sunday 7th April 2013
quotequote all
Yeah, it wont be a sign it will either be a Galaxy with flashy light and a led board on the back saying follow me or a police car with a VOSA bod sitting in the passenger seat. If you ignore them, a police car turns up and joins them in stopping you.

The best way to make them ignore you is to paint your lorry red and put royal mail stickers on it.

rumple

11,671 posts

158 months

Monday 8th April 2013
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Used to go through Crawford ( I think ) to avoid that one in my youth.whistle

Plastic chicken

Original Poster:

383 posts

211 months

Tuesday 9th April 2013
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On the rare occasions that the Stirling weighbridge is open, often there is just the sign directing people in, which many drivers routinely ignore; sometimes a traffic plod will stand at the start of the slip road, waving selected vehicles in; obviously ignoring that would be asking for trouble.

Another thought...if you were at all dodgy or had something to hide, wouldn't you travel by night? I don't think the checkpoints ever open at night..do they?

bigwheel

1,625 posts

221 months

Tuesday 9th April 2013
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Plastic chicken said:
Another thought...if you were at all dodgy or had something to hide, wouldn't you travel by night? I don't think the checkpoints ever open at night..do they?
Yep...

v64paul

120 posts

228 months

Tuesday 9th April 2013
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VOSA target roadside checks carefully. Intelligence is gathered mainly at testing time and when operators licenses are up for renewal. The North West commissioner is particularly keen os standards. A major player we deal with was recently bottling it over an MOT failure they had recently as it counted against their upcoming renewal. Yes, Vosa do operate 24 hours and work in conjunction with other agencies such as the revenue and customs.
In my experience what is unfair is that "european operators" aren't treated the same. I remember one coming in with no brake pads visible on the nearside front brake, and i mean not there. New pads, one disc and a caliper later it was good to go. We phoned the VOSA guy concerned who told us to let it go. A british operator would have to present the vehicle at a HGV testing facility at an appointed time to have the vehicle examined and the prohibition notice lifted.