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Police aim to teach legal compliance
Page 7
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POLICE IN LONDON have teamed up with Transport for London (TfL) to educate operators in compliance with the law.
Chief Inspector Ian Brooks, who heads the new Metropolitan Police Commercial Vehicle Education Unit says the idea is to educate operators in an effort to improve road safety. However, he warns that if operators do not heed this advice the police will prosecute.
He says that if a truck driver is stopped on the road without a vocational licence, the police could issue a penalty and then visit the driver's employer to sort out that problem or any others that might be uncovered.
"It is about initially dealing with the incident that causes us to go [to the operator], but then widening the discussion in a non-confrontational way to raise awareness," he explains.
"The intent is to educate and encourage freight sector companies operating within London to adopt appropriate systems to reduce work-related road risks. It is estimated that one third of road deaths are at-work journeys so what this is about is encouraging companies to manage their occupational road risk.
"This will not only reduce casualties. but the negative features associated with crashes."
The unit, backed by TfL, was launched on 1 August with four officers; they will be joined by six more next April.
It will also feed data into TfL's planned Freight Operator Recognition Scheme, designed to reward well-managed operations.