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04.08.06 Response from WAVCA to industry comment on new legislation(...) What may not be immediately apparent from the story picked up and circulated by the Press Association is the huge amount of work going on behind the scenes in the industry to improve standards. The press has simplified the issues in order to get their head round quite a complicated situation. The resistance to the European legislation is not a resistance change for the better, in fact none of the current National and EU standards include acknowledging the wheelchair passenger position as a seat or testing this area at all. Some good companies in the UK, including all those who supply to Motability, are carrying out voluntary testing of the wheelchair restraint system and wheelchair passenger seat belt, but this is not mandatory. (...) Single Vehicle Approval (SVA) was designed for one-off vehicles and was never designed for vehicles built in series (volume). SVA is fine for protypes and in our industry is widely used for very tailored solutions like drive-from-wheelchair models. However over the last 5 or 6 years and in order to improve standards many WAVs are now built to a standard design and in some volume. This gives the benefits of conformity of production and consistency in build and allows the converter to produce the vehicles more efficiently. The benefits of this more efficient production is then passed to the customer in the form of quality build and reduced prices. We have all seen huge reductions in the price and value of wheelchair passenger vehicles over the last 10 year and it is this approach to manufacturing that has delivered this, whilst continuing to improve standards. The challenge with the European legislation is that the volumes of low volume type approval have been cut drastically and make many businesses unviable in their current business model. The formula is simple. Design costs are amortised over the number of vehicles the manufacturer expects to be able to build during the product lifecycle. If the lifecycle of a product is 5 years the converter can currently pay for the design potentially over 2,500 vehicles, 5 x 500. Under the new legislation (5 x 75) he will have only 375 vehicles through which to recoup his costs. This is the basis for our needing support. The alternative to increased numbers is to engage at the EU Small Series level. In order to achieve this we have asked the EU direct for certain concessions on the method of testing some elements of the conversion. (Again bearing in mind there are still no tests for the wheelchair position expected in this). We have been told they will consider our proposals, but not until legislation has been passed. We have said we need some certainty BEFORE the legislation just so we know where we are with our business planning and this is one of the issues we are fighting for. 10.07.06 New European legislation threatens the UK wheelchair accessible industry - prices set to soar for disabled people.New European legislation coming into force will severely threaten the wheelchair accessible vehicle industry, place hundreds of jobs in jeopardy, and could send prices of specialist cars for disabled people in the UK rocketing, warns Linda Ling, Chair of the Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters’ Association (WAVCA). Under the proposed new Framework Directive 70/156/EEC to be introduced in early 2007, manufacturers of wheelchair accessible vehicles will be forced to choose between either taking on huge extra costs to meet new EU small volume requirements or reduce sales to only tiny numbers of each model in the UK, and increase prices. Annual volumes for the entire UK industry currently stand at approximately 8,000 cars, made up of several different models. The current UK national small series scheme (Low Volume Type Approval) allows converters to build up to 500 of any model type. The new legislation is set to limit this to a pitifully low 75, dramatically reducing capacity, making production unviable, which could ultimately force many companies out of business. The result would be that the availability of suitable cars for disabled customers will become extremely limited and inevitably, prices will soar. Linda Ling, Chair of WAVCA says, "The people that use these types of vehicles are the most severely disabled with a lack of mobility that make it impossible for them to get out of their wheelchairs. They absolutely rely on specially adapted transport to get out of the house, go shopping, attend hospital appointments, and visit friends and family – all the vital elements of a happy life. Without this essential transport, they will be literally trapped indoors." A Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle is a vehicle category where a standard car has been structurally converted to allow a person with severe mobility impairment to enter a vehicle in their wheelchair, and remain in their chair whilst travelling as a passenger and driven by a carer. The conversion often includes cutting out the original rear floor and replacing with a strengthened, lower floor, changing the exhaust system, moving brake lines and changing the fuel tank, adding a ramp or hydraulic lift and fitting a wheelchair securing system, new seats and seatbelts. Mrs Ling continues, "Over the last 10 years, the wheelchair accessible vehicle conversion industry has grown to a vibrant, healthy and competitive sector of automotive manufacturing, with approximately 25 companies operating in the UK. Key players in the industry have been working very hard to improve the quality of vehicle conversions. The same manufacturing methods, which deliver consistent quality due to volume production, can also help to reduce costs of manufacture and these have been passed on to the customers. For example, in 1991 a basic converted car would cost roughly £18,000 whereas nowadays, prices start at under £13,000." The forthcoming legislation has worried the industry so much that membership of WAVCA has risen sharply. The industry body was originally established by a group of five leading converters to represent the needs of the industry for improved standards and of the wheelchair user travelling as a passenger. Linda Ling, Managing Director of founding member, Gowrings Mobility, comments, "What is galling about the forthcoming legislation is that our concerns have not been taken seriously, and that disabled people have not been consulted with at all and their needs are being swept aside. It is another case of European rules coming across from Brussels without considering the effect on British industry or the customers that rely on their products. And it seems that it is too late now for our Government to do anything more about it. Back in 2004 we had asked for the 500 to be increased to 1,000 to help the industry yet, despite this, we were shocked to hear that the DfT came back from Brussels negotiations with a reduction to 75." Due to a lack of support from Government channels, Linda Ling has resorted to setting up meetings herself with the industry, main car manufacturers, SMMT, the DfT, the Disability Rights Commission, and the Automotive Unit in Brussels to see if there is anything that can be done to prevent the destruction of this much-needed industry. WAVCA has also made Motability, the largest single purchaser of wheelchair accessible vehicles, aware of the situation. Linda Ling says, "Although the DfT readily admits that the UK conversion industry is being penalised, we have been instructed that no changes are possible now prior to legislation. We can appeal after legislation to a technical committee, but there are no guarantees that any changes would be made. Our MEPs need to challenge the proposed legislation when it comes for its 2nd reading in the European Parliament, and get us the considerations the industry needs, but the UK has only one voice out of 25 Member States, many of which don’t look after mobility needs as well as we do in the UK. The people that most need our support are being let down by our Government and Europe, and it is inevitable that the wheelchair users will be the ones to suffer. I urge anyone who is concerned about transport for wheelchair users to write to their MP and MEP." |
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