FTA wants 'due diligence' clause
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THE l'Rfikil IT I ransport Association has recommended wide-ranging changes affecting operators And drivers in its SlibilliSSiOn to the Road Traffic Law Review.
The review was set up last January by Transport Secretary Nicholas Ridley and the then Home Secretary Leon Briton, and is being chaired by the principal of Jesus College, Oxford, Dr Peter North.
It is the first major review of traffic law in England, Scotland and Wales since 1930 and aims to make it simpler and more effective to all road users.
The ETA, like the Road Haulage Association, says there is an "urgent need" for a due diligence defence for Construction and Use offences so that operators can argue they believed that they were taking the proper care.
The FTA says that it is also anxious that the courts should start to look differently at marginal and badly overloaded cases. There is a need for a "generally acceptable legal tolerance for overloading offences".
There should also be some examination of the problem of drivers who lose their HGV licences when they lose their vocational licences through private driving offences. The courts should take into account the effect on their livelihoods, the FTA suggests.