Buses/Coaches
#Periodic inspection
In order to improve road safety, your bus/coach has to undergo a quarterly technical inspection.
The bonus system enables you to obtain an extension to the validity of your technical inspection certificate to 6 months.
If you are issued with a green certificate on completion of a full periodic inspection (i.e. with no additional visit required) and if the essential safety elements are in good order, you may benefit from having the validity period doubled.
Buses and coaches not fitted with a brake retarder are required to undergo a braking test every 3 months and hence may not claim the bonus.
#Re-inspection/additional visit
If your vehicle has been issued with a technical inspection certificate with a limited validity, a re-inspection must be carried out at the same inspection centre in order to check that the defects noted have been prepared.
IMPORTANT
Make sure that you present your vehicle within the period stated on the technical inspection certificate. If this period is exceeded by 1 month or more, you will require another full inspection.
#Administrative inspection
Before registration in the name of a new owner, only the documents of the vehicle need to be presented for an administrative inspection so that the registration application form can be completed and approved.
After registration, the new owner will be required to present the vehicle for a full inspection, as well as to be weighed.
#Registration inspection
Immediately after the registration of a new vehicle and before it is put on the road, you must present it for a full technical inspection, as well as to be weighed.
If it is the registration of a used vehicle, an administrative inspection is necessary before it can be registered in the name of a new owner. Only the documents of the vehicle need be presented at the technical inspection so that the registration application form can be completed and approved.
After registration, you will be required to present your vehicle again for a full inspection, as well as to be weighed.
Following your visit, an identification report will be drawn up, covering the following details:
• Tare (unladen weight)
• Maximum Authorised Mass and Maximum Technical Mass (MAM and MTA)
• Maximum Authorised Mass for the axles
• Type of towing device, where applicable
• Masses that can be towed (with a towing device)
• Maximum load capacity (maximum payload mass that can be transported by the vehicle)
• Number of seats authorised
#Quality inspection
During the inspection of your coach, you have the opportunity of requesting a quality inspection so that your coach can be issued with a classification. On completion of the inspection, you will be given a classification document with a validity period of 1 year, as well as two quality inspection reports. The classification document and one of the two copies of the report should be sent to the FBAA.
#LPG/CNG inspections
Is your vehicle powered by LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) or CNG (compressed natural gas)? In which case, don’t forget that, in addition to the basic technical inspection, it is subject to a specific LPG/CNG inspection.
If the installation is factory-fitted or brand new, it will be checked at the time of the first inspection.
If you retrofit your vehicle with an LPG/CNG installation, it will need to be presented again for a partial inspection. It this case, the vehicle will also be weighed and a new identification report will be drawn up.
IMPORTANT
Installations of LPG/CNG equipment must be carried out in an authorised workshop, by an authorised installer.
On completion of the inspection, and provided your installation complies with the installation safety standards, a label will be affixed to the windscreen of your vehicle.
An inspection of the removal must be carried out, as well as an administrative regularisation so that the Federal Public Service Finance can be notified. The vehicle will also be weighed and a new identification report will be drawn up.
IMPORTANT
If any defects are reported in terms of the LPG/CNG equipment, under the heading of ‘repair’ or ‘regularisation with new inspection’, you will not be able to use your vehicle until the repair has been carried out; this is the case even if, overall, the vehicle is in good condition and, in the meantime, it is powered by petrol alone.
#Tow hook inspection
Have you just fitted a towing device to your vehicle? Don’t forget that this device must also be inspected:
Where the device has been fitted at the factory or when the vehicle is new, the installation will be inspected at the time of the first technical inspection. The maximum mass that can be towed by the vehicle will be provided in the identification report provided.
If you have a towing device fitted after registration, it is up to the installer or you to present your vehicle spontaneously for a technical inspection. A full inspection (basic inspection + check of the towing device and the way it has been installed + weighing) will be carried out. You will be issued with a new technical inspection certificate, as well as a new identification report.
IMPORTANT
A full towing device, installed and attached, is mandatory during the periodic inspection, otherwise a red certificate with validity limited to 15 days will be issued to you.
The vehicle will be weighed and a new identification report drawn up.
#Alteration (tuning)
As soon as any modifications or conversions are made to your vehicle, you must present it for a technical inspection to check whether you can drive around in it safely.
If the conversion is such that it affects the unladen weight of the vehicle, the vehicle will be weighed and a new identification report drawn up.
#Importing a vehicle
For more information, we advise you to contact our customer service department on 087.57.20.30.
Since 1 April 2019, it is possible to register vehicles imported from the EU via WebDIV.
This procedure is only possible if all following conditions are met:
1. Your vehicle has to be a category M, N or O.
M: cars and buses
N: (light) trucks
O: (semi)trailers
Categories T, C, R and S (agricultural tractors, tracked vehicles and agricultural trailers) are excluded.
2. Your chassis number must contain 17 characters.
3. Your vehicle needs to clear customs. Go to the nearest customs office with the documents of the vehicle and the purchase invoice.
4. You need to pre-register your vehicle. Visit the website for FPS Mobility and Transport and have your electronic identity card ready.
If all these steps are carried out in this order, the registration can directly be made by the insurer.
#Inspection post-accident - Trucks, buses, camping-cars, trailers
If your vehicle has been in an accident, it may be submitted, on the decision of a loss-adjuster, to a post-accident inspection. The aim of this inspection is to check whether your vehicle can be put back on the road without endangering the safety of its passengers, as well as that of other road users.
On completion of this inspection, you will receive a technical inspection certificate indicating any defects.
IMPORTANT
A post-accident inspection in no way modifies the reference date for the periodic inspection and hence at the most grants validity until the next periodic inspection.
This inspection may take the place of the periodic inspection if it is carried out within a period of 1 month prior to the reference date.