RHA to extinguish phoenix operators
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• The Road Haulage Association will "exercise its right of objection wherever possible" to 0-licence bids by hauliers it considers financially unfit, vows chairman Bobby Heaton.
At the RHA conference in Portugal this week he promised that the association will do everything it can to stamp on "phoenix firms" who go bust owing money and rise again in a new guise, he told delegates at the RHA's annual gathering.
The association is fighting former John Dee Group owner John Davison's applications for an 0-licence — one of the few times the RHA has sought to block a licence — but Heaton would not comment on specific cases.
Heaton, who runs St Helensbased Heatons Transport, also said the Government's refusal to back impounding of unlicensed trucks showed "outstanding naivety". The RHA tried to introduce the measure through a private members bill in the Commons this year but it was opposed by the Government, In his address to conference, director-general Bryan Colley blamed the rival Freight Transport Association for the failure to get consignor liability on to the statute books. The RHA wants consignors to be made responsible for truck overloading: Colley said the FTA refuses to support it because "it would put their members at risk".
Operators who cannot prove they have enough work to keep their trucks busy should be barred from entering the industry, delegates were told.