Collapse in the ITV service in the Valencian Community: transporters report losses

«The problem is that, since there are no appointments, we have to pass the ITV outside the Valencian Community. "We are here paying taxes and what we need is to have a service in good condition." The speaker is Juan Ortega, CEO of Transportes Generales Ortega, whose words summarize the discomfort of transporters with the traffic jam of the Technical Vehicle Inspection (ITV) service. The Valencian Federation of Transport and Logistics (FVET) speaks directly of "collapse" and asks the Valencian Government for a change of model that ends with fleets of immobilized trucks waiting to pass the ITV.

"The change of model is imperative," says the president of FVET, Carlos Prades. The business organization, in fact, has warned that companies "are facing fixed costs without generating income." The loss of income is estimated at an average of 600 euros per truck per day. So the question is: what is happening with the ITV service in the Valencian Community?

If you ask Prades about the x-ray of the problem, he responds like this: «It would be one of these in which everything is black. The doctor looks at the x-ray and sees nothing. The ITV service has been failing for years, but the dramatic turning point occurred when the previous regional government decided to reverse it. The president of FVET refers to the decision of the previous Executive of Ximo Puig. PSOE and Compromís - which headed the Ministry of Economy - agreed to return the service to public management after the end of the private concession.

The 2019 electoral promise, however, did not materialize until February 2023, that is, on the eve of the regional elections of that year. That even caused internal tensions in the Valencian Government due to the haste with which a legally complex process had to be completed and which meant that the Administration had to take on a workforce of more than a thousand workers. But, especially for Compromís, the reversal of the service had a strong symbolic weight. The objective was to return to public management a service privatized by the PP of Eduardo Zaplana, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for collecting commissions and rigging the awards of ITV stations.

So it was the PP Government that in 2023 had to take charge of the poisoned gift. To the point that the Ministry of Industry, on which the public company Valencian Society of Technical Vehicle Inspection (Sitval) that was created for the reversal depends, does not deny the problem in any way. Sources from the department headed by Marián Cano admit that "the current model is a burden." They point out, in fact, that no public ITV company in Spain works well.

In the case of the Valencian Community, despite the investments and fine-tuning of the service, the reality is that it draws a map of public access on previous appointments. The Sitval website usually presents the province of Valencia painted red. This means that in most of its stations it is impossible to make an appointment to pass the inspection within 45 days.

Industry sources point to a "very complex reversal" in which up to seven different concessionaire companies were involved. Each one with its agreements and its own workers. It has been the current autonomous Administration that has had to complete the salary equalization process promised by the previous Government. As for the assignment of the stations to the Patrimony of the Generalitat, it has not even been completed, and it has not been until now that the Ministry has been able to approve a public employment offer for 73 new ITV inspector positions with which the workforce will be reinforced.

"The service is not optimal," they acknowledge in Industry, where they do not deny the loss of income for the autonomous Administration either. At least, those that would be obtained with vehicles that, being able to pass the ITV in the Valencian Community, prefer to do so outside. Of the 2.5 million vehicles that have to pass inspection, only 1.9 pass through Valencia stations.

"Those of us who are in Valencia and cover national or international routes have to go to Murcia or Cuenca to pass the ITV, but delivery trucks or school buses, which do not leave the province, do not have room to pass the ITV in another community," confirms the head of General Transport Ortega. «A large truck is made up of two vehicles, the head and the platform. Since both have to pass the ITV, if I have 100 trucks, I must pass 200 inspections. In the case of commercial vehicles, from the age of 10 onwards you have to pass it every six months, so you can find trucks for which you have to do four MOTs a year," insists Ortega.

According to a FVET survey, "the loss of competitiveness is a problem for 64% of Valencian companies that have at least two vehicles waiting per year." The average wait to get an appointment to pass the MOT is two months, which for the business organization is "unaffordable waiting times that block the logistics chain." More than half of the companies surveyed stated that they had or had had vehicles in their fleet stopped because they did not have a current MOT. 78.5% of the transporters, as Ortega pointed out, have traveled to other communities to pass the ITV and avoid sanctions.

Despite this, the president of FVET clarifies that the transporters have avoided demanding a new privatization of the service. "We don't want to harm anyone," highlights Prades, for whom the Administration could opt for a "mixed model." That is, maintaining as a public service what has already been reversed, but expanding it through collaboration with the private sector. In short, a public-private system that eliminates bottlenecks. For example: "Why can't the workshop of an official dealer be authorized to pass the ITV?" asks Prades.

The Generalitat confirms that "formulas are being sought to improve management", although another reversal of the ITV service is not on the table in any case. Yes, “mixed formulas” are being considered. But the legal figure with which to undertake this change is also not clear, which, in any case, would not be in the short term. The bureaucratic obstacles to expanding the workforce or opening new ITV stations are just some of the obstacles that current managers have encountered.

In fact, the previous left-wing Executive formally informed companies in 2021 that he would not extend the 25-year concessions. It was not until 2022 when Sitval was finally created to undertake the transfer between February and March 2023. The concessionaires were unable to get the courts to stop a reversal that, to this day, remains unresolved.