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Industry concerned over recovery plan
Page 6
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The FTA says there will be "major winners and losers" if proposals to replace the flat-rate recovery fee go ahead. Roanna Avison reports.
AFTER 14 YEARS charging £105 to recover any vehicle that has been involved in an accident or been abandoned, the Home Office is considering a banded charging system.
The Home Office has just closed a consultation period on the proposals that would mean recovery companies that are contracted by the police and the Highways Agency to remove vehicles would receive different amounts depending on the type of vehicle and the position and state it is in.
However some concerns have been raised about the proposals, which put all vehicles over 18 tonnes in the same bracket, Malcolm Bingham, head of road network management policy at the Freight Transport Association (FTA), says recovery operators' costs need to be covered by the charges and at present that is not happening.
"It will be a much fairer system when there are reasonable charges for the different recovery criteria of different vehicles."
But Bingham says one area the FTA is concerned about is the plan to put all vehicles over 18 tonnes in one bracket. "That's a wide-ranging bracket and there will be some major winners and losers on that We believe it's a problem. It doesn't differentiate between rigid and articulated or whether the truck has a trailer and the different costs of recovering these vehicles.
Liam Boyle, deputy director of the Road Haulage Association (RHA), says the review is a good thing for the market because the current fee has not changed for about 14 years.
The RHA has long felt the fee does not adequately address all the factors involved in a complex recovery."
He adds that the Home Office review is scenario-based and makes it very transparent for haulage operators. "They will know what the costs are likely to be in the event of a recovery and it represents a reasonable reward for the recovery operator."
Boyle adds the RHA looked carefully at the plans to lump all vehicles over 18 tonnes into one price bracket.
-It's an area the Home Office might have decided to break down, but I think it opted to keep it as one bracket to keep the charging system as simple as possible. There is already sufficient complication in the proposed breakdown of categories.
The RHA is also hopeful the government will put a system in place for charging foreign operators when it finalises its plans for the statutory charges.
The government is expected to analyse the feedback over the next three months before revealing its proposals for legislation.
• The charges range from £350 to £9,000 for LGVs over 18 tonnes, from £300 to £5,000 for 7.5 to 18 tonnes and £150 to 13,000 for 3.5 to 7.5 tonnes.
FOR MORE ON THIS AND RELATED SUBJECTS
www.roadtransnort.com/cm