Opposition to compulsory boxes
Page 35
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ransport consultant Robert Coates should get his facts right before sounding off (CV/5-11 August). The Freight Transport Association does not oppose the replacing of tachographs by airline style black boxes.
What the VIA does oppose is making such black boxes compulsory The FTA cannot accept a situation whereby operators, and particularly those with only one or two vehicles, have to replace their existing tachographs with black boxes. For many fleets the electronic way will bring benefit, but for others the cost, including computer equipment to analyse black box data, would be prohibitive.
And for the record, the VIA did not oppose the principle of underrun guards or spray guards.
What we did oppose were impractical rules that were not going to bring any benefits.
Let's be clear, the FTA policy is not dreamt up in an ivory tower in Tunbridge Wells, but it is determined by more than 700 active committee members drawn from every sector of industry and area of the country.
John Guttridge Head of external affairs, Freight Transport Association, Tunbridge Wells, Kent.