Safety to go public?
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by Amanda Bradbury • The Department of Transport is planning to make hauliers' safety records public.
Accident details, convic tions and annual roadworthiness tests would be available on a new Vehicle Inspectorate hotline. Details of prohibitions would be supplied in writing after a written request, says a Government consultation document. The system could be working later this year.
Protection for hauliers would include a one month gap before prohibitions were released—in order to give time for an appeal to be lodged. Information on prohibitions by a whole fleet would be accompanied by details of its size.
The VI would also draw up a classification systern, dividing prohibitions according to their seri ousness. Enquirers would also be warned that it is not always possible to determine how far the operator is at fault.
Brake director Mary Williams welcomes what she calls the 'lists of shame'.
"It will help responsible operators to benchmark their safety records against others. It is happening already. We are working with the University of Huddersfield on a project to benchmark records— how many accidents operators are having; what causes them; what can be done to prevent them and what is being done.
"But the Government has got its priorities wrong if it thinks making safety records public will stop cowboys.
"Only enforcement can do that. It's more important now for the Government to put more resources into the the police and VI," she says.