CONTRACTS VI cannot afford to clamp riviDETEI ;Its down on non - EU drivers
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• by Karen Miles
The Vehicle Inspectorate is not living up to its promise to prosecute hauliers using illegal eastern European drivers—and it blames this inaction on a lack of resources.
Over the past few weeks the executive agency has warned five London hauliers for using Turkish and Romanian drivers—but it has not launched any prosecutions. Instead the companies have been reported to the South Eastern Traffic Area Office and the VI says 'investigations are continuing".
Prosecutions demand time-consuming investigations because the VI is required to catch nonEuropean Union drivers actually working in British cabs. The VI now seems unable or unwilling to devote the necessary time and resources to this type of investigation.
Its admission files in the face of earlier promises that it would "act accordingly" on hp-offs from lawabiding hauliers. The VI said it wanted to "catch them (non-EU drivers) in the cab so that we can prosecute the driver and the British company for permitting it to happen".
Only one company prosecution is planned so far—and that is only because two Polish drivers were found "by chance" in a British haulier's cabs. This prosecution, for using drivers without EU licences, is likely to be brought under the 1987 Road Traffic Act.
Hauliers have been tipping off the VI "thick and fast" since it appealed in January for information concerning British competitors using illegal, cheap eastern European drivers. Observers believe up to 50 hauliers are involved in this practice.
Braintree-based Delamode International
is the only other haulier the VI has moved against—it was warned in January to stop employing illegal, mostly Romanian, drivers. Nigel Harness, a Canvey Island owner-driver who has raised the issue of illegal eastern European drivers, is disappointed by the VI's lack of response: "Enforcement in this country is easier than in others-90% of offenders are coming in through one port," he points out. It's a gift on a plate."
This problem has become an issue since the Department of Transport's clarification three months ago which said non-EU drivers must not drive British-registered trucks.