Following a meeting on 17 May, the Department for Transport (DfT) will work with MWheels to investigate ways in which the Heavy Goods Vehicle Inspection Manual’s section on wheels can be enhanced to improve vehicle safety.
MWheels will produce a short report which highlights its concerns with the new UK testing regime in relation to EU Directives 2014/45/EU (Periodic) and 2014/47/EU (Roadside), emphasising where it believes the changes do not reflect the newly imposed minimum safety requirements as required by Europe.
John Ellis, Chief Executive of MWheels, says: “We now understand why the EU Roadworthiness Directives were not introduced in ad-verbatim, it is up to each Member State to decide on its own testing regimes to meet the new minimum EU standards, but we believe there are still flaws in the updated UK approach.
“Within the discussions, the DfT invited us to work with them to uncover solutions to certain problems, such as ‘wheels not marked with a load index or load marking must be assumed to be capable to carrying the axle weight’, to research what can be introduced for the betterment of operational vehicle safety.”
MWheels’ eight-year CV wheel safety campaign saw major input into both EU Roadworthiness Directive Periodic and Roadside documents, which were fully implemented by all 27 Member States on 20 May 2018.
