Pre
Page 10
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
111111111
charge for police escort notes
by Dominic Perry Heavy hauliers have accused a police force of profiteering after it made them use an expensive fax number to request escorts when moving abnormal loads.
Hampshire Constabulary says the 60p/min fax line is an attempt to recoup some of the costs involved in administering abnormal loads.
But Sarah King, quality manager at Bristol-based Kings Heavy Haulage, says that the premium rate fax number could have serious financial and safety implications. If all the authorities and police forces
start doing this then the cost implications will be enormous.
"It will also encourage those who are short of cash to bend the law and then the police will have to sort out the mess anyway," says King.
Heavy hauliers send out hundreds of notifications every day and King points out that a cost of 60p per mecsage could become expensive. She adds: "They should charge for the escort and that way we can pass on the cost to the customer, which you cannot do with the fax charge. That way we'd get a far superior service too."
A spokeswoman for Hemp shire Constabulary says: "We are spending what is effectively public money to look after the interests of private businesses.
"It is an exercise in cost recovery—we are not making any money out of this.'' She adds that hauliers can always post the movement notifications, although the hauliers claim this takes too long.
She says that police forces across the South-East will soon be introducing similar systems. But all the others involved (Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Thames Valley) denied they would introduce such charges in the near future.