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Vechiles Testing Center
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The Vehicles Testing Center (VTC) at Palestine Polytechnic University (PPU) was established in 1997. According to the agreement signed between PPU and the Ministry of Transportation (MOT), the PPU’s VTC is the only accredited vehicles testing institution in the West Bank.
The establishment of the VTC was instructed by the prevailing political situation and the pressing needs of the Palestinian vehicle owners: the prevailing closures of the Palestinian territories, the peace process and the ongoing changes in the area, the gradual separation of Palestinian and Israeli economies, and the pressing need of establishing independent Palestinian economy and infrastructure.
Until the establishment of the VTC, Palestinian vehicle owners and Ministry of transport had depended on Israeli workshops and laboratories for engineering, implementation, testing and certification of changes in road vehicle construction and usage.
Since the signing of the agreement in November 1997 until the end of september 2006, more than 11198 vehicles were tested in the VTC, 3784 are private and passenger cars, and the rest are commercial vehicles. Engineering and testing fees for each vehicle varies from 200 to thousands of US$, which means a saving of several millions of dollars to the Palestinian economy.
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Vehicle testing can be made at the request of the vehicle owner, but most of the tests were made upon the request of the MOT licensing departments. The scope of the performed tests covered all the requirements of road vehicles construction and usage, changes in load carrying bodies, annual certification, installation of auxiliary mechanical systems and devices, changes in vehicle structure, after accident tests, and vehicle forgery and falsification tests. The following tests were the most frequent over the past 3 years:
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1- Changes in the construction and use of trucks and commercial vehicles, which include:
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· Installation of load carrying bodies.
· Changing load carrying bodies (platform, box-type, closed, tipping, de-mountable, etc)
· Installation of special containers (liquid tankers, refrigerators, concrete mixers, solid waste compactors …etc.)
· Installation of special equipment such as cranes and hydraulic lifts.
· Installation of passenger seats.
· Changing wheel base and chassis extension/shortening.
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2- Testing vehicles involved in car accidents, which include:
· Inspection and assessment of damages and deformation of vehicle frames. · Assessment of road worthiness · Testing propulsion, steering and suspension systems. · Testing of road safety systems · Stability and road safety tests
3- Testing old vehicles · Annual testing of hydraulic lifts · Annual testing of liquid carrying vehicles · Re-licensing old vehicles 4- Testing suspected vehicles for forgery and falsification of chassis’s numbers. 5- Testing the installation of special devices such as: towing brackets, coupling devices, corner fittings for freight containers, side guards, under-run devices, bumper bars, spray suppressors …etc. 6- Testing of mechanical auxiliary systems for car driving to be used by the handicapped or driver training. 7- Other types of tests requested by MOT. Top |
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* Future goals :
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1. Acquiring state-of-the-art testing equipment
2. Establishment of a training center and offer specialized training courses for vehicle drivers, service men, and garage foremen.
3. Participation in setting-up national standards for road vehicles.
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