TAOS TO TIGHTEN UP ADVERTS
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• Regional Traffic Area Office managers are meeting this week to discuss a scheme to stem the tide of repeat 0-licences caused by hauliers placing invalid adverts in local newspapers. They are considering charging hauliers to bundle their notifications together in adverts to be placed by the regional offices. Hauliers could go on placing their own adverts but the scheme would save money for the large number who have to re-apply—and re-advertise—because they make mistakes in their advertis.
"They've found that a fairly high percentage were incorrect and a lot of mistakes were due to the need to publish notifications within fairly tight guidelines," says the North-Western TAO.
The idea is expected to be tested in a three-month pilot scheme in the North-Western and North-Eastern regions, although charges for the scheme have yet to be worked out. The two regions process some 700 0-licence applications a year.
No-one counts how many hauliers have to go through the costly process of re-advertising their applications, says the TAO, but many simply find advertising a chore. Some advertise in the wrong newspapers, miss deadlines or word their adverts badly. The scheme was first mooted in the Traffic Area Network Review by Stephen Curtis. This also called for a simplified, cheaper 0-licence application system (CM 5-11 October).