No plans for van licensing regime

19th August 2014

The Government will not introduce a licensing regime for van operators along similar lines to that which exists for HGV fleets, the Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency has confirmed.  

Part of the DVSA’s role is to raise standards by cracking down on firms running LCVs which fail to meet existing regulations.  However, quoted in Fleet News, the Agency’s trade and industry engagement manager Paul Walker said:  “The legislation won’t change.  There is no appetite from Government to bring in any fresh legislation; it is trying to make it work within the existing framework.”  

Instead, Freight Transport Association schemes such as the planned driver passport scheme and Van Excellence, along with the DVSA’s roadside inspections, look set to be the main drivers to improving van safety, Fleet News reported..  

“The difference between good and bad operators is that the good ones think of their LCVs as small lorries and maintain them as such,” the FTA’s Head of LCVs Mark Cartwright said.  “The bad ones think of them as funny-shaped cars and need to be re-educated.”  

Fleet News also reported that the top five prohibitions issued to vans this year, according to DVSA’s effectiveness report, were for windscreen and wipers, tyres, engine and exhaust, road wheels/hubs and transmissions – and that 85% of the defects it finds at the roadside should have been picked up by the driver when conducting a walk-round check or when driving the vehicle.