Whitehall works on 0-licensing revamp
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• Civil servants will advise transport ministers how to update enforcement of the operator licensing system within the next three weeks.
Officials from the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) are working out the costs of a "visible disc"—a windscreen sticker designed to verify each haulier's 0-licence—compared with an updated computerised system which would allow Traffic Area Office staff to pass on information to Vehicle Inspectorate staff and the police.
"We're preparing castings hut no-one knows how long ministers will take to consider them," says the DETR.
The visible disc system, which is hacked by the Road Haulage Association, was devised by Traffic Commissioner John Mervyn Pugh. It would allow the public to spot and report trucks belonging to unlicensed hauliers.
The option of an updated computer system for the TAOs looks likely to cost substantially more than the discs. But the Freight Transport Association
is backing this option, which it hopes would allow its members to phone in 0-licence changes 24 hours a day.
"We've pressed vigorously for the computer system because we see it taking us into the 21st century, rather than adding to bureaucracy problems and the paper chase," says FTA manager for road transport law, Owen Thomas.
The comparison follows the consultation exercise launched before the general election on the future of operator licensing. Thomas says that consultation paper was "vague" on costs.
The DETR and the Home Office are holding talks on the practicalities of impounding the trucks of cowboy hauliers— including those running without 0-licences (CM 3-9 July).