EU enforcers swap data to improve intelligence
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• A long-term project to make it tougher for UK international operators to break the law when overseas begins next week with a meeting of European Union truck enforcement agencies.
The aim of the meeting, at the Vehicle Inspectorate's Bristol headquarters, is to establish protocols for the EU's enforcement agencies to swap information on convictions and roadside checks relating to the EU's estimated 5.6-million hauliers.
It will bring together offi
dials from the UK. Ireland.
France. Holland and Belgium in a bid to improve the cross-border flow of intelligence on international cowboy operators. They also want to set up formal ways of informing each other about law-breaking hauliers so these operators can be more easily targeted when driving abroad.
The VI's 600 traffic and vehicle examiners currently use lap-top computers with enforcement information on British operators. It is hoped that they will also be able to log on to use information on UK and foreign international hauliers supplied by foreign enforcement authorities.
The project. code-named Club Intelligence, was launched by the French—notably Jacques Mutez, the traffic controller for the Calais Nord region and Lille's deputy major.
Next week's meeting will start to look at the issues of common systems—the VI is the only agency thought to have computers—and ways to overcome language barriers.