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Check up on your work

12th October 2006
Page 12
Page 12, 12th October 2006 — Check up on your work
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Commercial Motor brings you alternative views from experts who are allied to road transport. This week Sergeant Mark Thompson tackles the problem of drivers with the wrong licence — or no licence at all.

As a supervisor at the Metropolitan Police Commercial Vehicle Unit, I've seen it all when it comes to drivers not abiding by the law. But at the moment, the problem that really stands out in the transport industry is driver licensing.

Every day my officers are coming back to base with stories about how they have stopped truck drivers with forged, stolen or invalid licences.

Over the past three months in south-east London alone we've charged 12 truck drivers with offences connected to having no licence, a forged licence or the wrong category of licence.

It's an international problem and one that can easily be solved. What needs to happen is for management to regularly check up on its workforce.

What most operators do is check the licence when a driver first joins the firm, but they fail to re-check the licence a year down the line to make sure that it is still valid.

Recently my officers caught a driver in Southwark behind the wheel of a 32-tonne rigid tipper while disqualified from driving. There was another case in which a truck driver had been caught drink-driving ayear ago but was still working. No doubt, at the time he was hired he was a legal LGV driver.

But things change and unless you know what's going on, you won't pick up on this.

The point that I'm trying to get across is that unless haulage bosses are checking these drivers' licences regularly, they won't see whether or not they have got a problem on their hands. Maybe a driver's licence has been revoked after a medical.

Has the boss thought about that? Has the boss also thought about whether the driver's licence fits the category of the vehicle he or she is driving?

At the moment it may just be a fine that the firm winds up with if the driver gets caught by the police without the appropriate licence. But if that driver has an accident, then from a legal point of view the company he or she works for is laying itself wide open.

Tags

People: Mark Thompson
Locations: London

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