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So you want a fight?
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With rising VOSA test fees and the Driver CPC to contend with, the BVRLA is earning its members' cash. Jay Parmar tells us which battles it is fighting.
Words: Jutian Manes / images: Tom Lee YOU MAY BE FORGIVEN for not being familiar with the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA). but its 150 or so members have an estimated 180,000 trucks and 320,000 LCVs on their books, giving it quite a presence in the industry.
Yet you may not get this impression when you visit its HQ. Situated in leafy Amersham, Bucks, it certainly doesn't give the impression of a key association within the road transport industry.
But it doesn't take long into a chat with its head of legal services, Jay Parmar, to realise the association is fighting its members' corner, and there are several battles in full swing.
The most significant set-to is with VOSA and its decision to integrate the 0-licence fee with the annual testing fee — something the BVRLA points out shouldn't apply to many of its members. But they're required to pay this as part of the annual vehicle testing fee.
Parmar states: "Asking members to pay the combined annual test and 0-licence fee is unjust and unfair."
He adds: "The vehicles are leased and rented to operators, so why should they pay the new enforcement as part of the merged fee?"
And there's more. VOSA's proposed 9% increase in the test fee was never going to be universally welcomed, but it's even more galling when it follows on from its admission that the hike is down to poor management in the past. "What about new operators who will suffer the increase even though they weren't benefitting from enforcement when the deficit was incurred?" Parmar asks. -At the very least, VOSA needs to postpone these changes."
The BVRLA has responded directly to VOSA with these issues and is hoping to engage in talks soon.
But if this is dominating the BVRLA's attention, there's also another type of forthcoming legislation that's set to cost its members both time and money: the Driver CPC, for which drivers can begin training in September.
'In principle, we support anything that helps raise standards. However, we're concerned over incidental use, where our members are just delivering a vehicle that is empty for customer use. We're not in the business of delivering goods, we're not professional hauliers.
"When you look at the course, about 50% of it is about how to move the vehicle and knowledge about moving goods, and is therefore irrelevant to our members. When you put it into perspective, it's about a 5.5m cost to our members, and it is disproportionate."
He points to the exemption from drivers' hours for those in the industry, and hopes this line will be taken into account when deciding on immunity.
Conflicts from within Parmar continues: "We're calling on the government to ensure our industry is exempt; this would also apply to other industries such as dealerships, which are delivering or moving vehicles.
The BVRLA is awaiting a response from Department for Transport (DfT) lawyers, but it is believed that since the Driver CPC is being introduced in response to an EU directive (EU2003/ 59/EC) and should be dealt with directly, the UK government has interpreted it differently and so is being engaged.
As a result, there's plenty happening in the legal battlefield as legislation threatens to further burden the rental and leasing industry in financial terms.
Yet it's not just the powers-that-be that are threatening BVRLA members. There's also conflict coming from within — specifically vehicle manufacturers.
Block exemption may have been designed in order to free up potential opportunities for budding vehicle dealers and repairers, along with cutting costs, but Parmar insists this freeing up of competitiveness in the market has yet to materialise, with access to diagnostic and repairing equipment, along with actual vehicle data, still hard to come by for independent dealers.
"The availability and cost is still proving to be problematic. For example, if you're repairing one New vehicle once a year, it does not make economic sense to invest in diagnostic equipment or information for that one vehicle.
"Furthermore, every dealer for a particular garage has to pay for this information, it makes sense for a single source to pay for it then distribute to its garages, instead of charging individually for the same piece of information."
Parmar points out that the existing block is soon to expire (2010), and that the commission is looking at a draft proposal focusing on repairers and the servicing of vehicles — a key part of the BVRLA's members' role.
"We've made a formal representation to the European Commission on that. We commented on the its draft proposal last year, and it is going to publish a report this year."
Maintenance Away from the legal battlefield, the association has recently announced that an annual independent maintenance and service audit for all its CV members will be introduced."This gives additional reassurance and peace of mind to those renting or leasing one of our members' vehicles," explains Parmar. "It takes the hassle out of having their inspection records independently audited, in keeping with the guidelines by VOSA.
"We also ask for an audit of their maintenance record.s.This is fundamental for an operator if they're renting, or if the maintenance is being carried out as part of a leasing agreement.
"They need to be reassured it's compliant with the 0-licence regs as stipulated by VOSA's 'roadworthiness' guidance; our service will provide this."
For the BVRLA, raising its profile is a case of picking the right fights. •