RHA wants hanheff ulprits listed
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• Hazchern hauliers who break the law on dangerous loads should be reported to their customers, says Road Haulage Association tanker group chief, Phil Gate.
Consignors of dangerous substances are using operators who are "knowingly taking risks and breaching the regulations to save costs," says Gate, managing director of Teesside-based Sadler Tankers.
And because of Health and Safety Executive confidentiality guidelines, reports of hauliers who are issued with prohibitions for breaking the law are rarely passed on to the chemical companies. Speaking in the week of the RHA's Tankcon conference and exhibition in Chorley, Gate says he would like the rules changed so that the HSE informs consignors every time an infringement occurs.
"The biggest control on these hauliers is commercial control," says Gate. If customers knew each time a haulier broke the law it would drive cowboys out and improve the image of the industry, he adds. The USE says that the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 prohibits disclosure of prohibition or improvement notices to third parties.
But when a prosecution takes place it is recorded on a public register which is on display at the HSE's 20 area offices.
The HSE can issue a verbal warning, a prohibition notice or an improvement notice to an operator found to be breaching any part of the Act, which includes hazchem and dangerous goods regulations. It also makes 2,000 prosecutions a year, but does not keep records on how many of these involve hauliers. Tony Cook, the RHA's controller of hazardous and bulk goods, says the changes are necessary "if we are going to improve the standards of the carriage of hazardous substances on the roads of Britain". And he is confident that the changes in the law will "eventually" be made.
David Hunter, a former policeman specialising in hazard ous transport who now runs his own training company, agrees with the RHA: "It sounds like a good idea. Many companies go on in ignorance using hauliers who have been prosecuted. It was a problem we always had in the police, getting feedback from the HSE."
Frank Tristram, the FTA's manager of hazardous cargo services, says most consignors have strict auditing systems for their subcontractors and write into their contracts that they must be informed of prosecutions and prohibition notices. He says •he cannot see the RHA's suggestion working.
II Today (Thursday) Phil Gate is chairing a seminar at Tankcon on "Sans Frontiers" (without borders), at which the USE will speak.