News

Commercial Motor has been invited to see Vosa's Weigh-in-Motion Sensors (WiMS) in action at its site near Leatherhead on the M25. The WiMS was set up along the clockwise carriage of the M25 before Vosa's weighbridge the sensors comprise of piezo-electric strips embedded into the road surface. Working in conjunction with cameras this technology enables Vosa to ascertain the weight of a vehicle, recorded as individual axle weights. It also produces  a side image of the vehicle being weighed, complete with an image of the number plate.

This data is then matched against Vosa's database. This will reveal the vehicle's Operator Compliance Risk Score and highlight if the truck has previously been spotted running overweight. When an overweight vehicle is spotted by WiMS the Vosa operator radios through to a patrol vehicle to pull it over. A spokeswoman reports: "We have three vehicles at this site which means we can pull over roughly four trucks per hour."

About half the trucks pulled over are foreign-registered so Vosa is ready for communication problems: "We have phrase books but can also call a number at any time which provides translating services."  It seems that foreign trucks are particularly prone to drive-axle overloads while UK vehicle are more likely to be caught with gross overloads. This is due to the fact that foreign operators are more likely to have drawbar rigs than their UK counterparts.

WiMS sites are now in action at Leatherhead, Perry Bar and Dartford, and 11 more are in the pipeline. Vosa head of enforcement Kevin Rooney says: "By the end of next financial year all sites should be finished." And he offers a word of warning to drivers: "You can't get around the sensors on the hard shoulder."