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en an HGV break aim, n the road the hapless

24th January 2002
Page 37
Page 37, 24th January 2002 — en an HGV break aim, n the road the hapless
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

ier can often face a big bill to get his truck ecovered. The reason? ce rota schemes which restrict some jobs to selected recovery operators. As reports, it isn't just uliers who are unhappy about this system...

The idea of recovery operators as modern day Dick Turpins is a hackneyed one. No-one likes signing cheques and any haulier will tell you that getting a vehicle recovered from the roadside after an accident or breakdown is not the cheapest undertaking. Most accept

that it is a necessary evil, but what many hauliers find harder to stomach is the fact that getting their vehicles back to the yard can be even more expensive if the recovery operator is on a contract with the local police.

Mike Eagles, chief executive of the Roan Rescue Recovery Association (RRRA), says: "The police have always had rotas [of recovery operators]; there were problems with them. I'm not denying that. But managed schemes are bad business sense for the general public and road hauliers because they are not encouraging competition. If you remove com petition the first thing that happens is prices go through the roof. "The RRRA view is that managed schemes don't work—they are expensive and I am yet to be convinced by any police force that they have saved money by introducing an external manager."

Andy Smith, a member of the Kent and Sussex Vehicle Recovery Group (KSVRG), agrees: "Who gains? I can't see anybody except the managing agent and a few selected operators."

The vogue for managed schemes has been going for the best part of a decade. Kent Police, for example, contracted their vehicle recovery out to the AA in the early 19 gos: "Kent had r2o-odd garages on a rota system and the AA reduced that to 23," says Smith.

"We were one of the 23 and we found we were writing off 43% of our work [because of non payment]. The only way to make it pay was to hike our charges up and that wasn't for us, honestly. Government organisations tend to take a small amount of logic and extrapolate it into something unworkable."

Gwent Police was heavily criticised last year by the district auditor, which described the management of its recovery contract as "seri ously deficient" (CM 5-rt July 2oor). The force reverted to an in-house rota system which Eagles said was "as good as it gets" in terms of police schemes—under vehicle recovery liaison officer Ian Volpe.

Reasonable costs

But the Gwent Police Federation has decided to contract out to a third party again this year. Volpe, who was not the target of the auditor's criticism, says lessons have been learned: "We would expect any operator to charge a reasonable rate for recovering a truck." He defines "reasonable" as "the normal rate for doing that job in that area" adding: "If an HGV is recovered under statutory powers we have a responsibility to ensure those costs are reasonable.

"If we feel the charges are too much we would ask the recovery operator why and expect a reply too. It doesn't have to be on the complaint of a haulier; we see copies of the bills. We are not recovery operators but we know enough to see that charges have been duplicated." KSVRG is now negotiating with Kent Polk( in an attempt, it says, to make the police': scheme more flexible, but Andy Smith is no hopeful: "They are doing the ostrich thing They won't enter into a dialogue. We wan common sense to prevail."

But Shane Dickman, the force's genera services manager responsible for the scheme believes this is already the case.

On the charge of hauliers paying over thi odds for recoveries under manage( schemes, he is firm: "We don't know hov true that is, how much credibility it has People don't like paying out.

"One of the driving forces is 'best value' we're dealing with the public pound. There i: a popular misconception that we have to ge breakdowns recovered under the scheme, bu we try, wherever possible, to give the owne the option. Mr Smith doesn't feel this is goinj on half as much."

Smith is not convinced: "It's a nationa issue now. It piques me that if one of my CM tomers junks one of his trucks on the motor way two miles from me I will probably not b. allowed to do it. That benefits no-one—leas of all the customer."


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