Heavy hauliers face loss of police escort service
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• Policing of abnormal loads on motorways is likely to be privatised if the Conservatives win the general election. Abnormal loads would be escorted by a single van run by a licensed company, with the haulier meeting the costs of the escort, say the Thames Valley Police.
The Home Office has already paid for a feasibility study and now practical trials led by officers at Thames Valley and Warwickshire are being carried out with Special Types hauliers. A report will be sent to the Association of Chief Police Officers.
Brian Rawcliffe, chairman of the Heavy Transport Association, has had two loads escorted by the police under conditions stimulating privatisation. The first load was picked up at Carlisle after Scottish forces refused to co-operate. "Having a single escort across all the county boundaries could work well for hauliers if the system were properly organised," he says, calling on ACPO to come up with a coherent nationwide policy for heavy hauls.
Rawcliffe has no objection to privatisation, provided that. escort companies are governed by an effective code of conduct.