News

Portsmouth Port has persuaded VOSA to check fewer trucks going through the port in an effort to minimise delays and prevent operators switching to other ports.

The agency has cut the number of trucks it checks at Portsmouth by 540 per year to make it proportionate with the number of checks at other ports.

Portsmouth says trucks using the port were being checked more often than at other ports because it has its own weighbridge, so VOSA found it easier to perform checks there than  elsewhere.

Martin Putman, port manager, says: "We've always had the weighbridge but when the DfT asked VOSA to start increasing checks nationally we found that trucks going through Portsmouth appeared to be checked more often than at other ports."

Putman argues that not only did this cause delays, but potentially put Portsmouth at a competitive disadvantage to other ports because operators might have switched to somewhere with fewer delays.

He adds: "VOSA analysed its checks and agreed with us that Portsmouth was getting more than other places, and so has taken steps to make sure that the percentage of trucks checked is the same in all ports."

A VOSA spokeswoman confirms it had made efforts "to keep proportionality" in the number of checks at each port. But she adds that if any port, including Portsmouth, were to show a higher proportion of trucks with faults then checks could be stepped up at any time.