DTp cuts back on examiners
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• Further cuts in resources available for Department of Transport traffic examiners, and other Traffic Area staff, are leading to severe staffing problems in a number of areas.
Cut-backs in allowances for travel and subsistence (see Commercial Motor, Nov 29), and vacancies left unfilled, mean that some Areas are having to close down some enforcement services.
The Society of Civil and Public Services Traffic Examiners' branch secretary, Ralph Beaumont, told Commercial Motor that in one Traffic Area, where six members of staff would normally be available for tachograph analysis, there are now only the two clerical officers manning the tacho-checking VDU. As a result computer screening there has been shut down until further notice.
In the same area £3,000 has been cut from the travel subsistence budget, leaving an average of only £24 per week available for each traffic examiner. "Just a 70 mile (112km) trip and a day's subsistence wipes out this amount," says Beaumont.
He is worried about the low morale now prevalent throughout the service. "My members are being prevented from doing their jobs by a shortage of funds."