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We must have our say!
Page 9
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Two meetings, two views. Brian Lee, MD of Allan Morris Transport, stirs from his VOSA-induced coma to tell us why the WTD's 'periods of availability' should be defined by the industry itself.
I recently attended two VOSA meetings in less than twenty hours and both were packed to the rafters.
Obviously the content of these recent meetings has been the latest interpretations of the VVTD regulations. I have sailed the seven seas and been involved in road transport for 25 years and never given Periods of Availability a second thought. Recently, however, I have been falling asleep thinking about them and waking up with them still playing on my mind. From what I learned POAs would appear to be the one aspect of the VVTD that can make it even vaguely workable to a great number of transport companies and their staff.
What's worrying me about it then? Well, one VOSA group gave a very sensible interpretation of the POA, in front of no lesser personality than TC Beverley Bell. A day later and less than 10 miles away VOSA staff in Wales gave a much more pedantic and prescriptive interpretation. I have to agree with the RHA's Ruth Pott, who's lived and breathed the VVTD for the past four years, when she suggests the industry should have the final say about what defines a POA in order to civilise this idiotic piece of legislation.
The second VOSA roadshow was supported by the likes of the DVLA and the Highways Agency. What disappoints me is the unambitious targets these organisations set for themselves. For example, the Highways Agency is endeavouring to get congestion levels back to where they were in 2000. What a dispiriting goal. Never mind Ken Livingstone having his congestion charge — we should have our own, charging the Highways Agency for having to sit in another traffic jam on English roads. Of course the Highways Agency doesn't cover Scottish or Welsh roads; they are the responsibility of organisations with so little nous and ambition that they make the people at the Highways Agency look like hell-for-leather go-getters...
"She suggests the industry should have the final say about what defines a POA to dvilise this idiotic legislation"