Automotive inspections gain pace

Edited by the Manufacturingtalk editorial team Jun 28, 2005

Since the beginning of 2003, TUV Rheinland Group has been inspecting vehicles in Santiago, and is now the market leader for automotive inspections in the country.

Since the beginning of 2003, TUV Rheinland Group has been inspecting vehicles in Santiago, and is now the market leader for automotive inspections in the country.

The government has made vehicle inspections mandatory in the Chilean capital, for a number of years; with the goal of keeping vehicles with poor exhaust emissions off the road.

Residents in Santiago suffer more and more from poor air quality due to the booming economy and because of Santiago's geographical location between two mountain ranges.

As well as environmental aspects, questions on traffic safety are also playing a greater role in Chile.

Unlike other countries e.g Germany, traffic fatalities have been rising continuously in Chile.

Last year, 1,703 people died as a result of traffic accidents in this small South American country with overcrowded Chilean public transport buses often involved in these accidents.

These types of vehicles must be inspected every six months if they are older than three years.

Chile is the first Latin American country to introduce a comprehensive exhaust and technical inspection for vehicles, modelled on the German system.

The TUV Rheinland Group won four bids to operate 16 inspection stations for ten years until 2014, with an option for renewal.

The TUV Rheinland Group has now become the market leader for vehicle inspections in Chile and the Group is planning to invest 12.5 million Euros in inspection centres.

Upon completion of the inspection centres, expected by the beginning of next year, a total of 300 employees will inspect vehicles in the Santiago, Concepcion, Temuco, and Puerto Montt, and Valdivia areas.

"With its stable economic growth and its relatively high standard of living for the region, Chile offers the best conditions of all in South America for investment," says Gunther Lang, Executive Director of TUV.