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Tough love is needed

13th December 2001
Page 9
Page 9, 13th December 2001 — Tough love is needed
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Keywords : Magistrate

"Transparency" is a much overworked word. It simply means that everyone knows what's going on. So we await the proposed updated Traffic Commissioners' Guidelines with eager anticipation. It's been claimed in the past that decisions from the TCs can vary from traffic area to traffic area. But that's only to be expected when you have seven different, independently minded TCs hearing seven different cases. It's the same with magistrates.

And, just as magistrates and the judiciary have guidelines for sentencing, so should the nation's Traffic Commissioners. And if as is suggested, the TCs are going to get tougher, whether with drivers or operators, then let them get tougher— universally. Commercial Motor has long been an advocate of "robust" enforcement.

Those supporters of self-regulation are fooling nobody but themselves. Allowing the road transport industry to regulate itself would be like giving a pyromaniac a can of petrol and a blowtorch and then turning your back. The quickest way to get the full, undivided attention of a road haulier is to call his neighbour to a PI. Nothing so focuses the mind as seeing a contemporary being well and truly hammered for an offence you're tempted by.

But whatever form the guidelines take they should mean "one-for-all, and all-for-one" p decisions. CM'S message to every TC is simple: if you want to get tough, that's fine by us and every lawabiding haulier in the country. Brian Visatharlay, Editor-In-Chid.

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