Salvage Wire

Salvage Wire
Helping Automotive recyclers become leaders in their industry

Wednesday 28 July 2010

More ELV questions and answers

Following on from the previous blogs we asked more questions of the Department for Business, Innovations and Skills. Our questions, and their responses are below:

Question: From the data given, we have 1 million vehicles de-registered during 2009 where certificate of destruction or notification of destruction has not been issued. I would be surprised if 1 million vehicles have had a cherished transfer or been exported, so what has happened to these vehicles, and if they have been scrapped why have they not gone through the ELV process as demanded by the EU End of Life Vehicle Regulations, the EU Waste Directive or even by Environment Agency guidelines?

Answer: First, the CoD requirements only apply to those vehicles stipulated under the ELV Directive (cars and light goods to 3.5 tonnes). Anything above this is not subject to CoD requirements. The Home Office were considering introducing a mandatory NoD requirement for vehicles over 3.5 tonnes, but there is no guarantee that this will proceed. Around 260,000 used vehicles are permanently exported annually. BIS, through its responsibility to collect information on ELV recycling and recovery performance is aware that there are vehicles passing through ATFs where a CoD has not been raised. In the 2008 report to the European Commission, the UK reported on a total of over 1,259,000 vehicles of which a CoD or other related notification to DVLA had not been raised on some 130,000 vehicles.


Question: What is DVLA policy when a vehicle owner attempts to scrap their vehicle? Do they accept the notification of scrapping from the owner (probably through the tick box on the V5), or do they refuse and insist on a Certificate of Destruction being issued?

Answer: We understand that DVLA does update the vehicle database where the tick box on the V5 is returned. However, in this case it does not deregister the vehicles from the database. You may be aware that the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport has recently announced the introduction of a new vehicle registration document. The new document will not include the scrapping tick-box and will be available for newly registered vehicles from the middle of next month and for all vehicles from July 2011.


Question: Is it possible to obtain full details on the numbers of vehicle notified as scrapped through the tickbox on the V5 and by personally scrapped de-registrations?

Answer: We will check with DVLA and get back to you separately on this. One complication is that there can be overlap between CoDs and vehicles notified as scrapped through the V5 tick-box.

Tuesday 27 July 2010

End of Life Vehicle Answers

We received a response from Peter Cottrell - Department for Business, Innovations and Skills

Thank you for your enquiry about end of life vehicles (ELVs) and Certificates of Destruction (CoDs). The enquiry has been passed to me for reply; the Environment Agency have provided some of the background information on enforcement of permitting requirements.

The total number of vehicles de-registered from 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2009 in the UK is estimated at 2,320,046. This covers all vehicle types including those not covered by the CoD requirements.
Vehicles are de-registered (i.e. removed from the vehicle register) for a number of reasons. Those reasons include:

a. vehicles that have been exported :

b. vehicles that have been scrapped (i.e. a CoD has been issued) and :

c. vehicle records that have been closed because the vehicle registration mark no longer relates to the vehicle concerned (cherished transfer) .

There were 1,202,593 CoDs issued from 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2009. In addition, 55,720 "unidentified" CoDs, and 24,024 Notification of Destructions (NoDs).

Although the Government has, in the past, considered the option of extending CoD requirements to other categories of vehicles, DVLA is not looking to extend the current CoD requirements . Vehicles presented to an ATF not covered by the ELV Directive can be updated on the DVLA vehicle record with an NoD.

The UK has over 1,500 licensed treatment facilities for ELVs. Last year, the Environment Agency organised four national workshops for site operators and in September provided each operator with a comprehensive information pack giving further guidance on the treatment of ELVs, preventing pollution, and compliance with environmental controls.

In April 2008, the Environment Agency launched a coordinated national campaign to tackle illegal ELV and scrap metal sites. In the first 12 months they closed or brought into regulation almost half of the 370 illegal sites that had been identified in England and Wales.

A few prosecution examples:

November 2008: illegal ELV site operator Malcolm Grange prosecuted and fined over £18,000 and made subject of a 12-month Community Order with 60 hours’ unpaid work

December 2008: illegal ELV site operator Daniel Power prosecuted and ordered to pay almost £190,000 by Swansea Crown Court under Proceeds of Crime Act legislation.

September 2009: illegal ELV site operator Christopher Brian Williams, 57, convicted at Caernarfon Crown Court in August and jailed for six months at Mold Crown Court in September.

Working in collaboration with local authorities, Police and the car recycling industry, the Environment Agency will continue to target illegal ELV sites.

In January 2010 the Environment Agency arrested four men in a raid on an Essex industrial estate. The raid was one of 30 operations the Agency was mounting to target illegal waste sites.

The estate, in Rettendon, Essex, had a history of illegal waste activities, including the unlicensed storage, deposit and treatment of scrap metal and scrap cars. Following a surveillance and intelligence gathering operation, Environment Agency officers and Essex Police visited the site, and found unlicensed skips full of waste, several hundred scrap vehicles still containing hazardous substances such as oil and brake fluid, and piles of other scrap metals.

End of Life Vehicle Questions

With the change of Government we recently approached the Business Secretary, Vince Cable with the following questions relating to ELV's

Over the last few years the EU End of Life (ELV) Regulations has come into full use. The Environment Agency (for England and Wales) and SEPA (for Scotland) enforce ELV standards on all licensed businesses involved in the dismantling of motor vehicles of any type. However, DVLA, who administer the Certificate of Destruction process (another part of ELV regulations) only apply to the limit of the regulations – cars and light vans. please can we ask the following questions:

• How many vehicles were de-registered from Jan 1 2009 to Dec 31 2009?

• How many Certificates of Destruction were issued in that same period?

• If, as suspected, there is a discrepancy between the two, what happened to the vehicles where a Certificate of Destruction was not issued, where they treated at Authorised Treatment Facilities as the law requires?

• When is the DVLA going to extend Certificate of Destruction to cover all vehicles, closing the current loophole that means people can take a vehicle out of use and dismantle it without having to have the vehicle treated by authorised treatment facilities?

• What action is your government going to take to ensure that un-licensed operators are either taken out of business or forced to comply with those businesses that have invested in their facilities, staff and equipment to achieve, or maintain the standards required as ELV licensed operations?

The answers received will be posted in another entry

Thursday 22 July 2010

International Round Table on Auto Recycling

International Roundtable on Automotive Recycling (IRT) runs from September 19-21, 2010 in Quebec City, at Quebec Canada Hotel Plaza Quebec
Hosted by Automotive Recyclers of Canada

Features include:
- Auto recycling facility tours (3)
- Welcoming reception
- Country reports (10 countries committed at this time)
- Global Presentations
- Roundtable interactive discussions (Green marketing; Engaging media, governments and industry stakeholders; Scrappage schemes around the world; International movement of ELVs; Extended Producer Responsibility schemes and the effect on auto recyclers; Enhancing used auto parts usage, Global computer technologies in sales and inventory management, etc)

For more information www.irt-autorecycling.org.

Thursday 15 July 2010

Home of Dylan Thomas



Recently travelled to the home of Sir Tom Jones, Catherine Zeta Jones, Aled Jones and Dylan Thomas – no, not the great Welsh poet, but the son of Ivor Thomas – car dealers and dismantlers from Lampeter.

A typical, local garage, serving the community around them and it is probably one of the most traditional, family owned and run sites that I visit during the course of the year.
Developed by Ivor over 50 years, the second generation of the family head the operation with the third generation being heavily involved, even more so following the sudden and very sad death of Ivor at the start of 2010.
What more could you want from your local garage, large supply of parts in stock, friendly and knowledgeable staff, sensible labour rates, vehicles for sale at affordable prices, and exemplary customer service.
Many businesses could do worse than take a look at Ivor Thomas and Sons, their no-nonsense, honest approach has served them well over many years, and will continue for many years to come.
Their web site (www.ivorthomasandsons.co.uk) is well worth a look, and if you are ever in Ceredigion, take an hour out and pay them a visit.