Since Monday, Commercial Vehicle Road-Testing (CVRT) resumed on a phased basis in compliance with the National ‘Return to Work Safely Protocol’ agreed between employer and worker representatives. Road and passenger transport companies and operators, represented by the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA), Freight Transport Association Ireland (FTAI), Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport (CILT) and the Coach Tourism & Transport Council (CTTC) have welcomed the resumption of testing. Operators should be aware of some of the implications.
The Road Safety Authority communicated with each of the 150 CVRT centres concerning the resumption of services. If a CVRT testing centre cannot put the required measures in place, they cannot resume services until they are assured that they can protect their staff and customers who come to the testing centre. Operators are asked to contact their own CVRT test centre for up to date information on the procedures in place and which they must follow, if they are presenting a vehicle for test.
Some Guidelines for the resumption of Testing:
- Only vehicles with an expiry date before 28-03-20 will be tested initially.
- Vehicles with a test due date, after 28-03-20 are covered by the order issued by the Minister on 1-04-20 extending the validity of roadworthiness cert for three months and will not need to avail of testing in the short term. However, testing for these vehicles will resume in the coming weeks.
- Individual test centres will be required to put rigorous and robust protocols in place that meet public and occupational health requirements to protect staff and Customers.
The Commercial Vehicle Roadworthiness (Vehicle Testing) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 says that:
All CVRT testing due dates which fell on 28 March, or after, have been pushed back 3 months. So, for
- example, if your test date was the 1st April 2020, your test date is now 1st July 2020. If your test date was 1st December 2020, it is now the 1st February 2021.
- ALL Certificates of Roadworthiness which were valid on the 28th March (ie not expired), shall continue to be valid and the new date of expiry shall be three months from the date of expiry specified on the certificate
Finally, Minister for Transport Shane Ross has asked his officials in his Department and in the RSA to continue to engage with a view to producing a road map for the phased resumption of other RSA services, including the National Driver Licence Service (NDLS), Driver Theory Test (DTT), National Car Test (NCT) and the Driving Test.