For many operators and vehicle makers, technical issues at the Commercial Vehicle Operator Show fall into two broad types; keeping existing vehicles running longer and more efficiently and coping with new legislation.
Among the 300 exhibitors there will be a huge range of systems and technology to help cut fuel use, operating costs and emissions. These vary from sophisticated fleet management software to tyre pressure monitoring or axle weighing kit and much, much more. The squeeze on cash means every penny has to go further and operators are all looking for ways to increase efficiency.
At the same time, operators and vehicle makers have to look at changing legislation and the way it will affect them. Whole Vehicle Type Approval is a good example. This started progressively last April and will soon affect virtually all vehicle buyers and makers, in theory making it easier to buy or sell commercial vehicles anywhere across Europe.
That’s the theory and the easy bit.
The practice is already proving more difficult, which is why the SMMT has set up a special advisory service to help vehicle makers. It will launch SENTA at the CV Operator Show, to help steer vehicle makers, particularly bodybuilders and trailer makers, through a thicket of much misunderstood legislation.
Type Approval as a principle has been around for years. It means that if someone makes a series of vehicles, each one of them meets all the legal requirements. In other words, if they are designed to the same specification, they are built to the same specification. The firm needs to say what it will do, do it and then prove it. The buzz words are ‘self-certification.’
This also means that someone will need to sign something to say that a complete vehicle, including chassis, cab, body, tail-lift, side-guards and under-run protection meets all the rules.
The key is for chassis makers, dealers, and customers to talk at every stage and be clear right from the start who will take that overall responsibility.
As dealers handle around 90% of all registrations, they will be in the front line, whether they want to be or not. “The crucial point is that without Type Approval paperwork, you won’t be able to register a new vehicle,” says the SMMT. “And of course, if you can’t register it, you can’t sell it. The line to remember is ‘no approval, no registration, no sale.”
And the final point is that, come the day, you can’t just nip down to the Post Office or the local Traffic Office and buy a Type Approval Certificate. Getting the process sorted may take months.
This is why the SMMT set up SENTA – SMMT European and National Type Approval Guide. You learn more about it on the Society’s stand 5702 at the CV Operator Show, at the NEC from 13 to 15 April, or from the SMMT website www.smmt.co.uk
The Commercial Vehicle Operator Show is owned by the CV Show LLP, comprising the Road Haulage Association, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders and IRTE Services Ltd, the trading company of the SOE (Society of Operations Engineers). Crystal Communications will manage the Show organisation, stand sales and marketing.
For further information please visit www.cvoperatorshow.com.
