The Prague Post Online: News: Ministry to reform auto inspections

December 1st, 2008

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Ministry to reform auto inspections

Influx of old cars and buses makes for perilous roadways

August 8th, 2007 issue

By Viktor Velek

Staff writer

On July 11, a Czech coach was stopped by police in western Germany. According to police, the vehicle was a “time bomb” with more than 25 serious faults.

“I have been doing technical checkups for 28 years but I never saw anything like this before,” a German inspector involved in the case told the Czech News Agency.

The week before, German officials in southwest Germany ordered a wretched Czech coach to be put out of operation immediately.

Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Czech coaches have gained notoriety in Germany and Austria for their dire technical shape. Experts say a large part of this problem lies in the easily evaded system of state technical checkups performed by Technical Inspection Stations.

Now, the Transportation Ministry is determined to toughen control over checkups. In September, it will begin testing a new system designed to prevent cheating and improve the state of vehicles.

“It is common that technical checkups are cheated. Inspection stations fake the checkup data or issue certificates without even seeing the car. The new system, which is to be launched in 2008, will prevent swindling,” says Karel Hanzelka, spokesman for the Transportation Ministry.

The technical checkup is a mandatory examination — undertaken by licensed, private inspectors — of a vehicle’s vital parts. Buses must undergo such a test annually, cars within four years of their registration and every two subsequent years.

Currently approximately 5 percent of all vehicles don’t pass the exam, according to Hanzelka, a figure that doesn’t match the reputation of many vehicles on the road.

The main tool to prevent cheating will be an online network connecting checkup stations with the Transportation Ministry, which oversees vehicle safety. Ministry officials will receive inspection data in real time, allowing them to keep closer track of vehicles being examined and enabling them to conduct random checks on the drop of a dime.

All the data will be stored in a central database and made available for the police to use as well, Hanzelka says.

Aging fleet

The domestic vehicle fleet is among the oldest in the European Union. The average Czech bus is almost 15 years old, according to Automotive Industry Association (SAP) statistics. Cars are slightly younger at 13.9 years and motorbikes average a whopping 33 years of age.

Furthermore, as of the latest available statistics by Eurostat, from 2003, about three-quarters of passenger cars in the country are more than 10 years old — the highest percentage out of 29 European countries surveyed.

Czech buses fare somewhat better in European rankings. Still, more than 62 percent of 20,000 buses registered are in the category of 10 years or older. In Poland, that proportion is as high as 73 percent.

Behind the numbers stand passengers increasingly frustrated by unreliable coaches.

“Over the past several years, three or four times our coach had broken halfway [and] we had to get off and hitchhike,” Prague commuter Lucie Kolářová says of her experience with a bus line connecting the capital with the south Bohemian town of Sušice. “Some buses are incredibly decrepit. I thank god every time I take one such and still arrive safe and in time.”

Pavel Ešner, internal relations officer for the SAP, says old coaches are most commonly used between villages and smaller towns. “Public transport within bigger cities is usually free of really old buses,” he says.

Praguers, for instance, enjoy relatively new buses. “The average age of our buses is 8.6 years,” says Eva Dydová of the Prague Transport Company. Six buses manufactured in 1987 are still in use.

Importing jalopies

The ministry says the tougher system of checkups will ultimately lead to safer roadways. But other issues also contribute to making many vehicles virtual coffins on wheels.

Cars, for one, are aging. “The bulk of cars is growing and getting old, especially by import of secondhand vehicles,” warns SAP chairman Antonín Šípek.

Since mid-2006, there has been no limit on the age of vehicles imported from EU countries. Previously, only cars younger than 8 years, and buses younger than 5 years, could be imported and registered here.

The loosened restrictions result from recommendations by the European Commission to liberalize trade in new EU countries. Over the past year, the import of old cars has rapidly increased.

“The largest part of the growth is cars aged about 14; which is above the current national average car age,” Šípek says.

Based on statistics from the SAP, the share of secondhand buses has also risen. In the first seven months of 2006, 14 percent of registered buses were bought used. In the first seven months of this year, the figure doubled to 26 percent.

SAP experts warn this rapidly aging fleet raises serious environmental and traffic safety concerns. But guarding against faulty vehicles isn’t just the Transportation Ministry’s responsibility, Šípek says. People themselves should be concerned with buying safer and more environmentally friendly cars, he suggests.

Viktor Velek can be reached at vvelek@praguepost.com

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