Despite working for a strictly legit company and driving a wagon that’s keenly maintained I always cringe inwardly when approaching a VOSA testing site.
All my tacho’s are bob on but I still cross all fingers when passing the high vis VOSA fella (particularly on the a74(m)).
Nope, Green light firm and all my kit and cards are bang on, wish it happened more often, I am paid by the hour you know 
having had a few run ins with them, now i dont worry about it, i dont go out my way to break the rules any infringments i do make i make a note of on printout.
last time i was pulled was november 2009 at dover so im due one soon but hey hooo im legal… 
Pulled for the FIRST TIME EVER 3 weeks ago, TWICE in the same week 
! Everything’s good, and off I went.
What’s peoples problem on here with VOSA? If you’re polite to them, I found them polite back.
I think everyones sphincter contracts slightly when the VOSA vehicle draws alongside or you see the signs ahead, even if you have had a full weekend break and only done 10 minutes driving
No, I don’t have a problem with them at all, they generally have a good look around the truck and trailer for me and I regard that as like being given a free MOT test. If anything goes wrong with the truck, I’m the first person who’s going to get his neck snapped so as far as I’m concerned they are doing me a favour.
I’ve always found them to be entirely reasonable, they normally find some very minor tachograph infringement in 28 days of cards, but there is always a logical explanation for it and I’ve never been ticketed by them.
The worst thing any driver can do when stopped by VOSA is to fail the “attitude test”. 
I dont know if this still applies but when I drove for TILCON we were NEVER pulled by the old Ministry of Transport, likewise Blue Circle and other large national companies, but when the trucks were sold off to a private company I was stopped several times (once on the hard shoulder of the M1 for a tacho and mechanical check)! No problems really, apart from an overloaded third axle on an eight legger and a deffered GV9 for a loose U bolt on a six wheeler, but do the large nationals still get left alone while they concentrate on the ‘small guy’s’ in transport?
Pete.
Harry Monk:
The worst thing any driver can do when stopped by VOSA is to fail the “attitude test”.
I agree with everything in your post,but this more than anything.The few times I’ve been stopped,I was pretty sure all was good,and it was.But there’s always that ‘What if’ in the back of your mind.
EDIT: apart from one time,but VOSA man was up to his armpits in an Irish Scania,and was a bit frazzled!!
Nowadays most of it is intelligence based, the VOSA car you see parked under the bridge at Leatherhead on the M25 will be waiting to intercept the truck which set off the Viper WIMS sensor at Clacket Lane.
This is the image they will be looking at in their Ford Galaxy, so if you don’t look like that then you are good to go
Harry Monk:
“attitude test”.
Very true
If you go in guns blazing, you will soon be leaving with a fine.
I don’t really worry anymore although it can be a pita if you are in a hurry. But my trucks ok and my tacho card is 99.9% ok and I have found if you are straight and honest and polite and they can see you ain’t running bent they are mostly ok.
Although when I first started driving I worked for a right bunch of cowboys and used to cringe if I saw anyone in a high viz on the side of the road. Thankfully they didn’t have the power to issue FPNs back then.
I once left a lorry at a mobile checksite and jumped on the tube as I didn’t think the private tax tank full of red would get me off to the best start with the man with the little hammer
windrush:
I dont know if this still applies but when I drove for TILCON we were NEVER pulled by the old Ministry of Transport, likewise Blue Circle and other large national companies, but when the trucks were sold off to a private company I was stopped several times (once on the hard shoulder of the M1 for a tacho and mechanical check)! No problems really, apart from an overloaded third axle on an eight legger and a deffered GV9 for a loose U bolt on a six wheeler, but do the large nationals still get left alone while they concentrate on the ‘small guy’s’ in transport?Pete.
Part of the green light system comes from feedback from the testing station, so if a company has a few failures on a particular defect, lights, brakes, tyres etc They will be probable spot ball for a pull.
In my own area most of the guys out on the road, were the same guys who worked in the GVTS. That was in the days when a copper selected the “Stop” and the Ministry man decided to wave him through or “have a look”
since they became mobile and computerised they seem to have more luck in selecting tasty targets!
Don’t even think about it, and I usually see them on two or three shifts per week around Stafford or Perry Bar.
I hate the US equivilent … DOT cops, Not that we run ilegally and our vehicles are well maintained and safe, but the DOT in most cases seem out to find even the most minor fault as in me getting a ticket and 3 CSA points for picking up a bolt in my tyre as I aproached a check one day and the tyre was still going down.
They keep us therefor 45 minute to a full hour making us late delivering or running out of time and not making the actuall delivery untill the next day. In my normal work that can mean shutting Ben & Jerry’s down for an entire shift.
I was once stopped when I was an hour from home with just over an hour left, even though I explained the situation to the very nice DOT cop he took 45 minutes and gave me no choice but to go off duty for 10 hours there and then … the B******d.
Some drivers would take a detour but now they have put truck limits on the routes that bypass the scales and check points, so you get a ticket for that.
I forgot to mention we also get paid for each inspection… Level 1 = $100, level 2 = $75, level 3 = $50.
On my last day in my previous job i was driving up the M6 toward the Stafford vosa site. Saw Mr vosa sat on the slip road just south of there and thought to myself ‘oh look, waiting to pounce on his next victim’.
Probably less than a minute later i looked in my mirror to see him coming past, he pulls in front and i get the Follow Me flashy light
Im ■■■■■■■■ myself lol, in a rubbish old merc 7.5t and although i know id done my daily checks i couldn’t help thinking they’d find something wrong with the truck.
As said earlier in the thread i think a good attitude towards them goes a long way. I was polite with them and all i got was a slapped wrist for a couple of minor infringements.
windrush:
I dont know if this still applies but when I drove for TILCON we were NEVER pulled by the old Ministry of Transport, likewise Blue Circle and other large national companies, but when the trucks were sold off to a private company I was stopped several times (once on the hard shoulder of the M1 for a tacho and mechanical check)! No problems really, apart from an overloaded third axle on an eight legger and a deffered GV9 for a loose U bolt on a six wheeler, but do the large nationals still get left alone while they concentrate on the ‘small guy’s’ in transport?Pete.
Pete I can recall my old man getting done in the 60s when he was on the BRS coming home from the docks in the smoke he was pulled for the third time that day at Leicester Forest and said to the ministry man " you had better ■■■■■■■ keep them as you have had them more than me today " so they found he was not up to date on his log sheet and he got a fine. The attitude test applied to him that day
cheers Johnnie
P S I was there when he said it but soon got out there quickly
Only when overweight.
Last time I was stopped, going out through the Channel Tunnel, VOSA man said “Your cards are all ok, but I’ve noticed you don’t seem to be using your mode switch properly” (I just leave it on rest all the time).
So I said “Gawblimey Guv, you’re right, sorry about that, it’s just that that’s what we had to do when automatic tachographs came in so I’ve sort of got into the habit”.
So he said “Look, me and you are “old school” but if you get stopped by one of the spotty lads fresh out of VOSA training school, he might be a bit keen and give you a ticket for it, so do yourself a favour and put it on “other work” for the first ten minutes of the day while you make a cup of coffee, then you can say you were doing your walk round checks and everyone will be happy then”.
I just cannot fault a VOSA man with this sort of attitude.
windrush:
a deffered GV9 for a loose U bolt on a six wheelerPete.
I hope that wasn’t on D704 PWL She was never stopped when wearing two tone green, and I’ve never been stopped in nearly 11 years of driving her successors, despite the “weathered” appearance…
Used to get many a check at dartford when pulling in to adr checkpoint, eventually got on first name terms with a few, and mainly got just a cursory check and sent on my way, the attitude test is essensial as one day a driver who failed it had a full service, with vosa, immigration, dhs, believe it took 2 hrs waiting for checks to come back, and left with a defered GV9, no doubt if it happened now it would have been a FPN.