Irish hauliers among worst offenders in British inspections

More than two-thirds of heavy goods vehicles registered in the Republic of Ireland were found to be overladen when stopped in Britain, according to the British Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency.

According to the latest figures from the agency, which relate to the 12 months to March 2016, some 67 per cent of HGVs registered in the Republic were found to be overladen.

The corresponding figure for lorries from Northern Ireland was even worse, with 69 per cent found to be in a similar condition.

In addition 33 per cent of HGVs registered in the Republic were found to have mechanical defects, while the corresponding percentage from Northern Ireland was again higher at 36 per cent.

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Some 42 per cent of inspected HGV trailers from the Republic were found to be deficient, while vehicles from Northern Ireland reached 49 per cent.

According to the figures from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency vehicles from Poland, Spain, Romania, Ireland and Bulgaria topped the list for those found to be deficient at roadside inspections.

Heavy goods vehicles found to be defective are issued with “prohibition notices”, which ban the lorries from continuing their journeys until remedial measures are taken and impose immediate fines of up to €354 (£300) .

Different procedures

The Irish Road Haulage Association has said the problem is at least in part caused by different operating procedures between the UK and Ireland.

Association president Verona Murphy said hauliers in Ireland mainly use weigh-bridges to ensure compliance with weight regulations, while UK authorities have sophisticated roadside technology that can measure the weight of a lorry at each axle. She said hauliers who were compliant with the overall weight regulations on the weigh-bridge were finding themselves over the limit for individual axels, resulting in a prohibition notice until the problem was addressed, usually by redistributing the cargo within the lorry.

Ms Murphy said it was a significant problem for hauliers from the Republic, which resulted in “thousands of euro in fines” for hauliers each month. “It is ruining people” she said.

Ms Murphy also called for greater enforcement of haulage regulations in Ireland. She said the difficult trading environment for Irish-registered hauliers in the Republic in recent years had made it cheaper for hauliers registered abroad to do business here. But she accused foreign hauliers of a range of noncompliance issues, in particular placing magnets on gearboxes in a bid to frustrate tachograph recording of the vehicles’s handling.