Here’s the latest from The Chauffeur.com on how vehicles are being destroyed in order to send a message to operators:
More than £150,000 of stretched limousines have been destroyed by VOSA (Vehicle and Operator Services Agency) in an attempt to send a safety warning to the industry.
A video of the exercise has been released by industry website TheChauffeur.com which has condemned the actions by the Government agency as a ‘useless exercise’ and a waste of tax payers’ money.
The Hummer H2, Range Rover Vogue and Porsche Cayenne limousines were recently confiscated by VOSA from an apparent illegal operator and were this week destroyed by Surrey Fire and Rescue Service using powerful cutting equipment.
Paul Gibson, editor of TheChauffeur.com commented; “Although we agree with the confiscation of the limousines and getting illegal operators off the road, destroying them is a step too far when so many other steps could have been taken to raise awareness of illegal vehicles.”
He added; “The original aim of the exercise was to highlight the ‘dangers of illegal limousines’, but VOSA, in my opinion, has failed to get this message across by destroying them. Other parts of Europe could have operated these vehicles safely and totally within their laws and the sale of them could have raised a large amount of money to perhaps put back into educating the limousine industry on the laws.”
VOSA displayed its first show of force in 2011 when it shredded a stretched Ford Excursion to demonstrate how it intends to deal with illegal operators in the future. Since then, a number of limousines have been taken from businesses who appeared not to have the correct licenses. In the next stage of enforcement, firefighters took cutting tools to the Hummer H2 and Range Rover limos and removed the roof and, in fact, proved how strong and safe limousines can be. In another exercise, an HGV was rolled onto the Range Rover limousine to see the affects.
Legislation Officer for the National Limousine and Chauffeur Association, Bill Bowling commented; “This is yet another character assassination attempt on limousines by VOSA. If you look at the figures, limousine travel is safer than any other form of road transport in the number of people carried per accident; taxis and private hire vehicles are way in front of limousines but, as per usual, we are the target.”
Head of Enforcement at VOSA, Neil Barlow told TheChauffeur.com; “The key thing from our point of view is to demonstrate that these unlicensed limousines can pose real dangers to the public.”
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