What is Commercial HGV Trailer Vehicle Type Approval?

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Vehicle Type Approval is the confirmation that vehicles or vehicle components meet specified performance standards.

Compliant products are demonstrated by the use of type approval markings (‘e’ or ‘E’ marks) applied by the manufacturer, and in the case of vehicles approved under the GB, UK(NI) or EU Whole Vehicle Type Approval (WVTA) schemes, by a Certificate of Conformity (CoC) issued by the manufacturer.

The process involves the oversight of the selection and testing of samples, the documentation of the specification and the evaluation of the measures in place by the manufacturer to ensure Conformity of Production (CoP). A prerequisite of type approval is that the manufacturer has appropriate measures in place to ensure that production samples will continue to meet the performance requirements as the products originally examined, this is known as Conformity of Production (CoP).

There are 3 main categories of type approval:

EU WVTA - European Union Whole Vehicle Type Approval

NSSTA - National Small Series Types Approval - 250 unit limit per year

IVA - Individual Type Approval

In the UK, the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) is the designated UK Type Approval Authority for automotive products and also a designated Technical Service for type approval testing in the GB, UK(NI) and United Nations (UN) schemes.

As the UK Type Approval Authority, the Vehicle Certification Agency is responsible for issuing UK type approvals on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport under the GB, UK(NI) and UN type approval schemes.