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VOSA has revised its Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness, and for the first time the publication highlights the option for operators to vary safety inspection intervals from the usual six weeks. Under the Safety Inspection Intervals section it says: "If you are an operator, you are free to tailor these inspections to suit the nature of your operations and vehicle characteristics. You may even deploy more than one system across a fleet, where vehicles and the nature of the work vary. Systems will  be judged primarily on their effectiveness in maintaining roadworthiness.

"It follows therefore that in order to maintain an inspection regime that is sufficiently flexible to accommodate these changing criteria it might be more appropriate to adopt an inspection frequency determined by, for instance, the vehicle's mileage." The changes have been welcomed by the RHA's head of technical services Steve Biddle, who was one of several people to have an input into the rewrite. He tells MT that although operators have been allowed to move from six-weekly checks before, this is the first time the option has been made obvious.

"I hope that hauliers will take a look at their operations and determine the most appropriate inspection intervals, rather than just assume that six weeks is ideal for them." He stresses that once an operator has determined which frequency is best, the decision needs approval by a Traffic Commissioner.