Highways England officers will now have the power to stop commercial vehicles, including coaches and buses, in the West Midlands
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has announced that Highways England Traffic Officers can now stop commercial vehicle drivers in the West Midlands after a new agreement was signed by both parties.
In a move to improve road safety and utilise public funds in a more efficient way, the agreement stated that the partnership will work to pull in coaches, buses, lorries and vans while sharing Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) in real time.
Through using its marked vehicles, Highways England will perform stopping duties, previously only performed by the DVSA or police.
Now both of the organisations can bring vehicles into check sites for DVSA examiners to check for issues such as drivers hours offences, mechanical defects, overloading and load security issues.
Due to this new partnership, drivers who fail to stop for Highways England or DVSA could face court action from the Traffic Commissioner.
DVSA Director of Enforcement, Marian Kitson, said: “DVSA’s priority is to protect everyone from unsafe drivers and vehicles.
“The main winner here is road safety.Working so closely with Highways England has been a great success; it makes perfect sense for those with similar skills, resources and goals to support each other in this way.
“This partnership means we have a wider network of stopper vehicles to hunt down that minority of rogue operators who put profit before safety.”
Gina Lawrence, Highways England Project Manager, added: “We see this as enhancing the important work our traffic officers already do in dealing with incidents and helping to keep our roads moving.
“We have worked with DVSA to improve the efficiency of the vehicle check site which has supported our goal of improving commercial vehicle safety on the strategic road network.
“We are pleased this will now become business as usual in the West Midlands.”
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