Axtec wins VOSA weighbridge contract for four more years

Axle weighing specialist Axtec (Axle Weight Technology Limited) has once again secured a two- to four-year contract to maintain and certify the VOSA network of 55 roadside enforcement weighbridges, located throughout Great Britain from Scotland to Devon.    

The Runcorn-based company has held the VOSA contract for the past 15 years during which time it has dramatically improved the efficiency of routine maintenance and calibration and significantly reduced downtime across the network.  Even so, Axtec still had to pass a rigorous pre-contract examination to win.

Under the contract, routine maintenance and calibration will be undertaken using Axtec’s unique weighbridge test vehicle first commissioned in 1997, and currently hauled by a 2006 DAF XF105 Super Space cab tractor.  This ingenious truck combines the roles previously carried out by four separate vehicles, a major factor in the speed and efficiency improvements achieved so far.

The Axtec test vehicle is also used for emergency repair work at night or weekends if needed, so that repair and re-certification can be completed quickly and within contract deadlines.  The contract incorporates strict time limits enforced by heavy penalties.  Axtec are very proud that they have never had to pay a penalty in the 15 years since they won the first VOSA contract.

The contract also includes regular level surveys to certify that the flat weighbridge approaches are within the stringent limits specified by law. Any remedial work is completed by Axtec’s own in-house technicians.

Axtec Managing Director, Keith Gresham, said: “Winning this contract for the fourth consecutive time is a ringing endorsement of the quality, speed and effectiveness of our service and a great way to mark our 20th anniversary as a business. 

“Good management has been a vital part of our success and VOSA have asked us to develop ways of reducing costs further, without compromising service standards, to deliver even better value for the taxpayer during the course of the new contract.

“Under this contract we have had to maintain a variety of different systems. This experience has given us the ability to maintain any axle weighbridge to a very high standard.  Our capabilities in this area, including our unique test vehicle, are available to users of any trade or public weighbridge anywhere in the UK.

“Nowadays, most of the VOSA network uses Axtec 4000 dynamic weighbridges. This is the most accurate dynamic axle weighing system in the world and holds two approval certificates; one for accuracy to within 0.5% and the other to within 0.25%.”