I'm growing wary of directly quoting people and disagreeing with their points! Some people seem to think that makes it personal, it's not my intention of attacking anyone on a personal level... And I find it is a lot of messing about to edit all those quote marks etc
Now, having said the above, I hope to have cleared the way to disagree with someone else's points whom I don't wish to fall out with
Gilbert,
I think that given what has been discussed so far - installs get on UKLPG's database without any type of inspection, UKLPG members register their own installs on the database... UKLPG members admitting that the scheme is sadly lacking in many ways, that it would be very unlikely that all those unsafe UKLPG registered installs that we have all seen were done safe in the first place (or at the time of the registration on UKLPG's database) and far more likely that a high proportion of them were actually registered on UKLPG's database in the condition we see them in now. I doubt you really believe that all those installs were safe at the time of registration and that somebody has since tampered with them to make them unsafe since then!
My point which you questioned, I will try to explain the point in simple terms here: People including UKLPG member installers discuss unsafe installs that are registered as safe on UKLPG's database. Then they repeat UKLPG's message 'only converted vehicles registered as safe on UKLPG's database are guaranteed to be safe'. How shall I express this... At best there appears to be a strong irony here, to press the point a little bit further UKLPG installers who talk about unsafe UKLPG registered installs but then advise people to make sure their install is safe by having work done by UKLPG members are contradicting themselves, at worst those UKLPG members are deliberately misleading people.
On the simple MOT system point, why couldn't it really be simple?
It should already be law that when a vehicle is converted to LPG the logbook needs to be updated to show this (petrol/LPG on the logbook). The only way to change the fuel type on the logbook is to send the V5 off to the DVLA. At the moment the DVLA will change the logbook fuel details with a receipt from any installer. All that needs to change is that the DVLA check the vehicle has had an MOT, with the engine running on LPG and/or since the LPG conversion was installed. The DVLA can already access information provided instantly and electronically directly from MOT testers!
It is debatable whether Vosa would prefer the expensive IVA scheme over the MOT scheme. At the moment, Vosa seem to be OK with anyone converting vehicles to LPG... After all, there doesn't seem to be many accidents or problems caused due to LPG systems fitted on vehicles - the concept of vehicles running on LPG seems to be inherently safe. Vosa don't seem to be concerned who converts vehicles and don't seem to take much notice of UKLPG. If, for any reason, alarm bells about the LPG industry did start to ring at Vosa then what courses of action could Vosa take? They might check out UKLPG's scheme, which is not compulsory in any case, which has installers passing their own work, which is wide open to abuse... and what conclusions would Vosa draw about UKLPG's scheme? So they might consider that since LPG conversions are inherently safe there is no need for any type of scheme to be in place... Except that there are many installers, particularly UKLPG members, whom originally started rocking the boat by hyping up safety concerns. Let us remember that I am certainly not the person who started this ball rolling with talk about safety in an inherently safe field - the LPGA and then UKLPG did that to the industry. I am only the person to say 'hang on a minute, it is all well aiming to improve safety (even though there's not much need) but your scheme doesn't work, is about profits, misinforms people and is damaging to anyone in the trade whom is not one of your members!'. If Vosa pay too much attention to UKLPG's message about safety they might decide to implement a scheme which is mandatory and which does involve independent checks. Given the inherent safety in the industry, and the fact that the government don't intend to kill off this green industry, I think it a good guess to believe Vosa would adopt the simple MOT scheme. Time for a bit of sarcasm I'm afraid...

In any case, if any UKLPG member has any worries about Vosa pushing for a change to the expensive IVA scheme that would kill off the industry, surely they believe that the mighty UKLPG would step in and 'lobby the government' to go with the MOT scheme instead, saving this industry which they have done so much to promote with all their adverts on the telly about how LPG is inherently safe?
Regarding emissions, I seriously doubt that all UKLPG member installers have emissions check equipment. It should be mentioned here that every modern fuel injected vehicle has built in emissions check equipment i.e. lambda probes. Granted, lambda probes can only measure if the mixture is correct, they cannot check HC, CO or CO2. If the mixture is correct on LPG then it can almost be taken from granted that all the nasty emissions will come down, and if not then there is a problem with the vehicle itself. However, the MOT scheme that I propose would pick up on any incorrect mixture or nasty emissions during the emissions check in the MOT! OK, let's hear it from all the UKLPG member installers whom have converted a vehicle to LPG, calibrated the system correctly, and then noticed HC levels rise.. Please explain what you had done wrong to get those results? How did you rectify the problem to enable you to register the vehicle on UKLPG's database? I expect the only answers will be ignition related.
Simon
Lpgc