DTp looks again IIA consultation document, detailing the Department of
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Transport's proposals for the removal of the need for some international operators' licences, is expected shortly, reports Commercial Motor, June 14.
at port hauls
DTp head of road freight Martin Albu confirmed to CM that it is looking at how operators running only to and from UK ports can be freed from the need to hold an international licence. This follows from EEC Transport Commissioner's Clinton Davis's statement last year that EEC rules should not require an international licence. Albu also confirmed that the DTp will eventually "when we get round to it," he told CMmake another attempt to change the 0-licensing rules which govern the transport of waste.
Following a Transport Tribunal ruling, waste carriers need only hold a restricted 0-licence and be classed as own-account operators, but the Road Haulage Association wants them to hold standard licences to prevent unfair competition against tipper operators. The Freight Transport Association's implacable opposition to such a change prevented the DTp from altering the rules this year.
In both cases it would take some time for the law to be changed, since the DTp has no parliamentary time reserved for legislative changes this session.
"The Government is considering changing the law to make third-party property insurance compulsory for all motorists, according to the Newcastle upon Tyne paper The Journal, June 7, which adds: Transport Minister Michael Spicer is also looking at extending to property damage cases the sort of protection given to the injured in road accidents.
This would mean that a driver would have to give the details of his property damage insurance after an accident and his insurance company would have to deal with a third-party claim whether or not the policy holder had reported the accident.
"Thieves posing as policemen hijacked a lorry in Belfast containing cigarettes worth £500,000, reports the Glasgow Herald, May 17. The lorry driver was bundled into a car and later dumped outside the city.
"The first British truckstop to gain full approval from the Routers Drivers Club, reports Commercial Motor, June 7, is Truckers, on the A38 at Findern, near Derby. It has a park for 120 lorries and bedrooms are bookable in advance.
"Computer-based technology is about to revolutionise distribution and marketing that was the main rhessage from manufacturers on the first day of the FT 1986 World Motor Industry Conference, reports the Financial Times, May 29. Donald Kress, vice-president of Booz-Allen and Hamilton, said manufacturers will have to change their strategies and stop concentrating so heavily on their vehicles "and focus on the real reason for their business the consumers and their needs for car and truck transportation". "Five people were killed in three separate lorry accidents in one week in the UK, reports Commercial Motor, May 31. The journal, while agreeing that there is nc room for complacency, warned that the Government, before even considering any action, should await the result's of its own Department of Transport inspectors' painstaking examination and police reports and publish these as soon as possible. Provisional figures for last year show that the number of accidents involving commercial vehicles fell despite a 4% growth in the number of vans, trucks, buses and coaches on the roads.
During May there were also reports of bad accidents abroad. Thirty-two youths were killed and 144 injured, reports the Daily Post, May 15, when a bus crashed in the South African homeland of Transkei. The day before that a bus crashed on a mountain road in Transkei, killing 30 of the 97 passengers. Fourteen passengers died when a coach caught fire about 600 miles north of Bangkok, reports the Daily Telegraph, May 20. At least 19 elderly people are thought to have died after a holiday tour bus ran off a mountain road in California. BBC Ceefax, May 31.
"Welsh Secretary Nicholas Edwards has overruled a public inquiry inspector's recommendation that the main shopping street of the village of Rosset in Clwyd should remain open to light vehicles, reports the Daily Post, May 17. An action committee of local people had pressed for this, arguing that the £27 million to scheme for a GresforcUPulford bypass, due to start at the end of the year, would divide the community of Burton from Rossett. The inspector, Maj-Gen P. Benson, agreed, but was unable to suggest how to stop high vehicles crashing into the bypass's low-headroom bridge.
"BET-owned United Transport Tankers has unveiled a tough new strategy to increase its share of the tanker market. Commercial Motor, May 24.
"Perrier Water is now being exported from France to Britain by rail ferry and Railfreight for road distribution from the Midlands via Pensnett Estate, Kingswinford, Dudley. Midland property firm LOP Properties has formed a partnership with French shipper and distributor Jules Roy under the trading name of LCP Jules Roy (UK). When Transport Express visited the warehouse complex, we were told that rail tonnage from Europe and the UK of all commodities has reached 2,000 tonnes per month. Visiting hauliers can use the site's lorry wash.
"Tracker, a vehicle performance monitoring system first developed for the Transport and Road Research Laboratory, is now available to operators, reports Commercial Motor, May 24. It monitors performance through sensors and is designed to run for a long time without attention. Measurements can be displayed quickly, whether in visual display or printed form. ETipping resumed at a Buckley claypit yesterday, reports the Daily Post, June 6, after British Nuclear Fuels gave written assurances that the rubble being dumped was not contaminated with radioactivity, but anxious residents will meet Alyn and Deeside MP Barry Jones to complain about the tipping at Mount Claypit off Church Road.
Dumping began about two weeks ago, and residents counted up to 30 lorries a day going Onto the site.
MA reduction in freight clearance times from a claimed four hours for 80% of the traffic to just 54 minutes is the aim of DTI (Direct Trade Input), the Customs trade computer interface, after the August switch on, reports Freight News Express, May 19. The journal quotes Terry Stone, chief executive of DFG, one of two wharfinger consortia, as asking: "Why is it 54 minutes, when two thirds of all traffic through Dover is full trailer load?
"We can clear single-entry FTLs in 30 seconds. Arid if you take a 30-entry groupage vehicle which represents less than 1% of Dover's total traffic we can achieve that in 20 minutes. So why is it 54 minutes? It's the 'worst case' syndrome. That can be the only rationale."
• Widespread selling of newspapers from petrol station forecourts is a step closer, reports Motor Trader, May 24. The Office of Fair Trading has now recommended the setting up of an appeal body to deal with disputes where retail outlets have been refused supplies.
III British Rail is losing its £13 million a year Post Office parcels contract to the PO's own fleet of vehicles. Commercial Motor, May 24.