The introduction of Remote Enforcement for more compliant operators was announced by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) at the first in the FTA 2013 Transport Manager conference series on Wednesday (11 September) held at the Brands Hatch racing circuit.
The Remote Enforcement Office (REO) will be tested by VOSA in an initial six month trial scheduled to start in October and to take place in the Western Traffic Area.
VOSA has introduced the REO in the belief that the process involved for the more compliant operator will be less burdensome and more effective for VOSA who will be able to target resource where it is needed more.
Remote Enforcement is intended to be another method to assist in effective use of resources; at present a VOSA examiner will attend the operator’s premises where as with the REO - VOSA will request relevant information to be sent to its office where it will be reviewed with the necessary recommendations being made to the operator; or follow up action taken as appropriate.
During his presentation at the Transport Manager conference, VOSA’s Richard Denby outlined to delegates of the organisation’s proposals for ‘new ways of working with the industry’, and how transport managers can apply best practice in order to avoid becoming targets of enforcement.
Commenting after the conference, Mr Denby said:
“VOSA has been listening to feedback from the industry and the Trade Associations, especially the FTA and are looking to change the way we deliver Enforcement.
We want compliance to equal good business value, and to ensure that a non compliant operator does not have a competitive edge over a compliant operator and cannot have a greater profit margin than a compliant operator.
We want a level playing field so that non compliant operators cannot unfairly bid for contracts above a compliant operator.”
Sage & Onion - 16/09/2013 15:04
Its a good idea but VOSA have assumed that there IS a profit margin to take advantage of ! It might be better if VOSA were to target the businesses that award contracts to make sure that there is a realistic, viable, and sustainable profit margin for the operators so that there would be no incentive for operators to try and cut corners just to survive.