Unfortunately I only just got this, so we've missed the meeting, but we can still spread the word and email the Roads Minister Mr Duncan Gay and keep spreading the word.
I've yet to do any digging to see what happened at the meeting, I should imagine there is already some fallout from it.
This is an email from the Australian Confederation of Motor Clubs.
***Important - Please Read and Act****
The NSW Center for Road Safety has done it again - things are about to get a lot tougher for motoring enthusiasts in NSW unless we act now.
During 2010-11 the RTA started to demand that Engineering Signatories perform an "Abridged Brake Test" on many modified vehicles - this test required high speeds, the rental of a specialist testing venue and frequently resulted in damage to the vehicle and tyres.
At the 2012 Motor Enthusiasts Conference the Roads Minister made several important commitments to address these concerns:-
- That a new brake test would be developed within a newly established Vehicle Standards Working Group that included representatives from Motoring Enthusiasts Community
- That the VSCCS scheme would not dictate the tests that vehicle certifiers needed to perform
- That the brake test would not be mandatory, and would be at the discretion of the vehicle certifier.
- That the revised brake test would be practical and affordable
Yesterday, the center for road safety staged a demonstration of the revised brake test procedure at Goulburn airport for members of the VSWG and vehicle certifiers. The Center for Road Safety believe that it was a huge success - we believe it just demonstrates that they are still not getting the message and will continue to inflict punitive conditions on motoring enthusiasts.
Somewhat ironically, the test vehicle used as the subject failed the tests...not because of the modifications....the failure was down to the only remaining standard parts of the brake system!
The new brake test schedule will cost between $2000 to $3000 to perform and unless you can convince your local Police area command to let you use over a km of road with an 80, or in some cases a 100km/h speed limit will require you to rent an airport for a day.
The test not only applies to vehicles that have modified brakes, but also to vehicles with minor changes to vehicle weight (10% axle loading), power (20%), wheel size, suspension height and a whole host of other changes.
The test also requires historic pre-ADR vehicles to perform to test standards derived from current generation ADR requirements - an approach which has not been tested and will be almost impossible for most historic vehicles to pass.
This will encompass most of the most common modifications made to vehicles by enthusiast groups - changes as small as fitting a bullbar, fitting out a tradie's ute with a storage system, a basic engine retune or just trying to improve the woeful standard brakes in your car will now become prohibitively expensive.
Even if you can afford to spend $3000 on a brake test, it is doubtful that you will be able to get it done - the Center for Road Safety stated that it had demonstrated that the test schedule was practical because it had performed the tests on one single vehicle, and was offering to rent a test venue once every 6 months or so as a goodwill gesture.
In our view the test can only be regarded as practical if *every* impacted vehicle can be tested in a convenient fashion - the test schedule will mandate testing many thousands of vehicles each year, and it is difficult to see how more than a hundred or so can be put through the test process each year.
The RMS require that modified vehicles being brought into NSW must be re-registered within a few weeks.....a mandatory inspection process that will take many months will do nothing but force these vehicles off the road.
We will post details of the brake test schedule on our website later today so that you can judge for yourself.
The proposed schedule is in direct conflict with the commitments that the Minister made at the 2012 conference.
- It is not practical or affordable
- It does dictate the tests that the certifiers must perform (It was intimated that this will be enforced through the certifier's audit process which will result in fines of thousands of dollars for the certifiers if they fail to produce the evidence from the brake test)
- It removes the discretion of the certified and makes the brake test mandatory.
We need you to do several things in order to ensure that this revised brake test schedule does not go ahead in its current form.
1. Watch the video of the Road Minister's speech at last years conference -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwk9Y-d6RC4 - the relevant section begins at 14:45 into the video.
2. Send an email to the minister's office -
office@gay.minister.nsw.gov.au - Reminding him of the previous commitments made and make it clear that the brake test schedule currently proposed by the Center for Road Safety does not meet them, request that the brake test is referred back to the Vehicle Standards Working Group with a strongly reinforced message to meet the commitment to practicality and affordability.
3. Try to attend the Motor Enthusiast Conference on the 17th Feb -
http://2013-acmc-conference.eventbrite.com.au/ - Entrance to the exhibition is free, entrance to the conference itself costs around $30 including lunch and will provide the opportunity to question the Minister and senior representatives from RMS and TfNSW directly. We are also going to try and arrange a demonstration of some simple alternative approaches to brake testing within the exhibition area.
4. Share this post with anyone that you know that will be impacted - club members, motoring enthusiasts, parts suppliers, modification workshops, etc and encourage them to act.
5. Sign up for an account on the ACMC website -
http://www.confederationofmotorclubs.org.au/ to add yourself to our mailing list so that we can keep you informed. The registration process is very simple if you have a facebook account, just click the blue facebook connect button and your account will be created automatically.
