Brake Performance Testing – How Do You Do Yours?

The Traffic Commissioners and the DVSA have recently issued separate warnings to operators of the need to improve their approach to brake performance testing.

Brake performance testing is a key part of an operator’s maintenance regime and should happen at every safety inspection; however, the Traffic Commissioners have said that poor brake testing, or the complete absence of it, is appearing far too frequently during investigations by enforcement officers.

The latest edition of the DVSA’s Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness (“the Guide”) makes it clear that a metered assessment of vehicle and trailer brake performance must take place at every safety inspection. The Guide strongly advises that a calibrated roller brake tester is used at every inspection to measure individual brake performance and overall braking efficiencies, but it is also acceptable to use an approved and calibrated decelerometer to test vehicles without trailers to measure overall brake efficiencies. It is also recommended best practice to test vehicles and trailers in a laden condition to get meaningful results.

The Guide adds that, if you can’t carry out a brake test during a safety inspection, the vehicle’s braking performance must be assessed using a road test. This needs to be carried out under controlled and safe conditions and the safety inspection record should state that the brake performance was assessed by a road test. The Guide does, however, state that a road test method to assess the brake performance for all planned safety inspections will usually be inadequate.

Where deficiencies in brake performance are identified, either during use of the vehicle or trailer or at the safety inspection, a measured brake efficiency test must be carried out. The efficiency test must confirm the brakes are performing satisfactorily before the vehicle or trailer can be considered as roadworthy.

The results of all brake performance tests must be recorded; however, the Traffic Commissioners and the DVSA have indicated that they are frequently dealing with cases where there is too little information recorded on safety inspection records in relation to brake performance testing to offer any meaningful assessment and, in other cases, no information in relation to brake performance testing is recorded at all.