ANNUAL ROADWORTHINESS TEST : 25% OF VEHICLES FAILED IN DUBAI
It is proclaimed by the Gulf news that vehicles about 25% percent in Dubai failed the Annual road worthiness test assigned by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) last year.
“The percentage of vehicles test failure has increased because the tests have become more stringent, the equipment more advanced and technicians more qualified.However, the main reason that I believe is helping detect a greater number of unsafe vehicles is the centralized system that has unified the results and made it almost impossible for a defective vehicle to escape,”Ahmad Hashem Behroozian, CEO of RTA’s Licensing Agency said. The testing facilities has been outsourced to private firms by RTA and on a same parameter basis, each center followed its individual system last year. “Different systems and equipment used by different testing centers meant the results differed. In many case, owners of vehicles that failed at one center would get the vehicles passed at another center. With the unified system all centers are linked to RTA’s system and all have access to the history of vehicles. Once the inspector keys in the vehicle and whether the vehicle has failed before, “Behroozian added. About 1.7 million vehicles has undergone the road worthiness test across the 29 centers in Dubai last year, but just 1.5 million vehicles were registered in Dubai. The remaining vehicles either failed or were exported. In-fact, about 36.6% failed because of damaged chassis, where about 15.8% vehicles failed due to defects in axles, wheels, tyre’s and suspension systems and 10.3% failed for lighting issues and 7.7% failed for visibility problems. The three major aspects of vehicle inspections – technical parameters, testing equipment’s and inspector competency. RTA targets in tightening all the aspects, he added. “Apart from looking into the technical standard of a vehicle, we have also enhanced testing equipment as well as inspector competency. We have introduced and developed a training curriculum for inspectors to meet technological and industrial advances. We regularly examine and certify the inspector and this has helped in improving their competency level.” He said that RTA is in the process of building up an electronic link, a platform that brings the dealers, testing centers as well as RTA allowing access to the history of the vehicle for all of them. Currently, Dubai has 29 centers for vehicle testing across the city, with a total of 119 lanes, which combines 69 dedicated lines for light vehicles.This year RTA is planning to license more testing centers with more advanced options.
