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Experts warn over red tape
Page 16
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Electronic tolling is meant to reduce paperwork, but one software firm believes that it will have the opposite effect. David Harris reports.
A NATIONAL ROAD pricing scheme would increase bureaucracy for hauliers as well as their costs, say computer experts.
One of the companies that supplies software for hauliers, CFC Solutions, says the central London congestion charge has already led to a 10% increase in the data handled by some fleets, measured by the number of bytes used by their computers. Further pay-as-you-go road use could only see this increase massively, it warns.
"Whichever charging and payment model is used, simply processing invoices will be a major task," says CFC sales director Andy Leech.
The Freight Transport Association (FTA) has been arguing for some time that the administrative burden on hauliers is constantly growing and could be reduced. Joan Williams, the FlAs head of road freight policy, says: "We recognise that over the years bureaucracy has increased, but the key question is where this is inevitable and where it can be cut."
Williams cites the length of time drivers have to keep tacho charts in the cab as one instance of paperwork increasing unnecessarily. Drivers used to have to keep tacho charts for the current week and one chart from the previous week. This has increased the current week plus the previous 15 days and in 2008 it will increase again, to charts for the previous 28 days.
Williams says:"Analogue tachos are going to be with us for some time yet and this means that drivers are having to carry a lot with them in the cab." She points out that no roadside check would have the time to look through them all.