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IMPOUNDING: THE FUDGE
Page 59
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• When the Transport Select Committee recommended this summer that trucks running without Operators' Licences should be impounded, the Government's response was lukewarm. Nothing new there.
All this year the Department of Transport has been debating the issue. Most frustrating of all for the supporters of impounding is that former roads minister Steven Norris apparently gave his backing to impounding in May, only to decide against its quick introduction later.
This decision was based on a survey of unlicensed operators which showed that just 1.8% of those checked were illegal, less than the 2`1) Norris had said were necessary for impounding to be immediately introduced. But critics argued that the figures should have been higher and that the survey was fatally flawed.
Yet still Norris said that impounding was being considered, so supporters waited with impatience.
The wait goes on. After months of prevarication, insiders at the DOT were admitting by November that impounding was not going to be introduced before the general election. The next question must be: if labour wins power, will it do anything differently?