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AS
I SEE IT
By Noel Wynn
Managing Editor
Vehicle inspections:
A breeding ground for conflicts of interest
As governments turn to the outsourcing of vehicle inspections duties
in relation to enforcement of vehicle regulations there is a growing
concern over the way that these testing duties will be carried out
by automotive repair businesses.
While this situation has existed for many year’s in NSW under the
RTA’s annual Safety Inspection (pink slip) scheme the expansion of
the outsourced inspections into the vehicle noise and emissions
areas has led to considerable unrest in the repair industry as many
of these inspection involve the checking of other repairers’ work.
Throw in the added problem of assessing whether any aftermarket
parts used meet an equivalent performance level as the original
component or at least are suitable for the intended purpose and you
have a complex of issues that usually ends up costing the vehicle
owner more than it should have.
I’m certainly not against qualified independent vehicle repairers
doing vehicle inspections on behalf of government but it’s looking
to me as though there is going to be a need for clearly defined
arm’s length divisions between their repair and inspection duties if
we are going to have workable cost-effective vehicle inspection
programs nationally.
The New Zealand model appears to be established on sounder
principles than the path being taken by various Australian states
but I noted some of the modern standalone Warrant of Fitness (WOF)
stations there had a repair facility adjacent to the inspection
station and an emissions testing facility I also visited in NZ was
setup within a repair workshop so I suppose it’s all going to boil
down to just how well the potential for any conflict of interest is
handled.
This is important so as to protect the integrity of the industry
based testers/repairers involved in any vehicle inspection schemes
with government.
Realistically, I must confess it’s difficult but something our
industry associations and governments need to sort out before we
blunder forward into unworkable situations that contribute nothing
except added expense to motorists and confusion within the
automotive aftermarket!
As always, your comments on this or any other topic are most
welcome.
NOEL WYNN Undercar
Review
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