At SmartCheck we love to support our customers and sharing DVSA advice is important to us, which is why we try to share important compliance-related changes.
So, what’s new?
From 1st January 2023, DVSA have announced that Heavy Goods Vehicles and Trailers you present for testing must be fully laden unless exempt. If you fail to do this a Vehicle Standards Assessor will refuse to test your vehicle.
What do you need to do?
You need to bring your vehicle or trailer appropriately laden; this means your vehicle must be loaded to at least 65% of its design axle weights with cargo or loaded with ballast. This is to ensure your vehicle has adequate braking performance.
What happens next?
The Vehicle Standards Assessor will then test the grip between your vehicle's tyres and rollers at its maximum. This allows the vehicle's wheels to keep turning for longer and avoid premature lock ups.
Are there any exceptions?
Sometimes, a vehicles design makes this hard to achieve, in these exceptions less than 65% will be accepted bot no lower than 50%.
Why is this new change so important?
The change is to improve safety. Brake testing has held more focus from The Traffic Commissioners and DVSA since 2014 and their efforts have helped decrease the amount of heavy goods motor vehicles that have failed their annual test on service brake performance over the past few years.
