BRS warns of HGV 'disaster'
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• Lowering the weight threshold for vehicles requiring HGV licences from 7.5 to 3.5 tonnes would spell disaster for truck rental firms, warns British Road Services.
The controversial move, which was mooted in a Department of Transport consultation paper (CM 14-20 January) would make the majority of the rental firms' customers ineligible to drive vans under 7.5 tonnes on the road unless they held HGV licences says BRS sales and marketing director George Inch.
The proposal would bring the regulation into line with 0-licence and drivers' hours rules, but it could also erode a large part of the truck rental market. Inch says that 40% of BRS's 3,000 vehicles are under 7.5 tonnes, and few of the people who rent them are HGV holders.
Many of the firms who hire these vehicles have businesses which move in peaks and troughs, making it necessary to hire casual drivers with clean car licences only. A change in rules would make most of these temporary workers in eligible to drive, he says.
The proposal also worries the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association, whose commercial vehicle committee discussed it at its last meeting.
Committee chairman Terry Nunn, of Cross Rent-A-Tipper, says the plan "contains a certain amount of commonsense", but anything which threatens to restrict numbers of customers is seen as a threat by rental companies. It could also affect vehicle sales. "The biggest sector of the market is 7.5 tonnes," he says.
There is a possibility, however, that "grandfather" licences could be given to customers who regularly rent vehicles weighing 7.5 tonnes or below, making them exempt from holding HGV licences for these vehicles. This happened when HGV licences were introduced in the sixties.
Both the Road Haulage Association and the Freight Transport Association have expressed reservations about the proposal: the RHA says it could reduce flexibility and increase costs by forcing up wages in the industry.