• The Department of Transport is to increase the number
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of HGV and PSV driving test examiners from 98 to 120 in a bid to cut waiting lists. Roads and Traffic Minister Peter Bottomley says waiting times are "still longer than we would wish", and he plans for tests to be taken within four weeks of candidates being selected as suitable to sit it.
• "Sleeping policemen" road humps are to be tried on Scottish roads, says Scottish Office Environment Minister Lord James Douglas-Hamilton.
• British road deaths rose by 6% to 1,100 in the first quarter of 1988 compared with 1987, says the Department of Transport. Serious injuries were up 16% to 15,000 and slight injuries by 17% to 58,400.
• Hertfordshire police stopped 55 foreign drivers on the M1 at Watford last Thursday in their third truck blitz in three months. Eight drivers were fined a total of £3,100 at Watford magistrates court on Friday for Construction and Use and overloading offences. Police chiefs promise a further check later in the year.
• Haulage firm Pain and Wheeler will plead not guilty on a technicality when it appears in court on Tuesday (26 July), charged with driving on streets covered by London's lorry ban. The outcome could set a precedent for later cases.
• The REA's Humberside Against Tolls campaign has lodged a formal complaint with the Government about the proposed increases in Humber Bridge tolls. It says the rise in HGV tolls from £16 to £23.20 for a return trip will undermine the stability of the Hull economy and could even force some firms out of business.