Haulage boss slams HA's abnormal loads system
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roger.brownrarbi.co.uk A NEW ELECTRONIC system designed to allow heavy haulage companies to notify the authorities about abnormal loads has been criticised by the boss of a leading firm as "far more time-consuming to use" than traditional procedures David Collett,managing director at Halifax, West Yorkshire-based Collett Transport, says his firm's experience of the latest version of the Highways Agency's (HA) new Electronic Service Delivery for Abnormal Loads (ESDAL) program has been "poor" , and that suggested improvements supplied to the HA "appear to have been ignored".
The voluntary system, which is currently in the fifth and final phase of its development, stores each notification and each proposed route electronically. It also allows the appropriate agency to assess the route through the ESDAL website.
Collett continues: "Although the database of authorities and agencies for the system is good, and the mapping has been improved, a normal commonsense approach of inputting information for load and vehicle dimensions has been totally ignored. We are now left with a
complicated, non-user-friendly system that is far more timeconsuming to use than before.
A manager at another heavy haulage specialist, who did not want to be named. reveals: "We tested it originally, but we don't use it because our tried-and-tested system works very well. We have found you get better feedback when people fax you back and people speak to you directly."
Sue Howard, ESDAL assistant project manager for the HA, says usability studies were conducted with hauliers before the development of each of ESDAL's four completed phases She adds: "We also conducted trials after each phase of development in order to gain feedback.
"Our stakeholders are kept informed of changes as they become available and also enhancements coming in the near future through ESDAL's portal pages and also via email."
To date, 1,300 hauliers have registered to use the service and the HA's aim is to get at least 50% of these using it regularly.
The project is scheduled to be completed in April.
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