Police to cut escort delay
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by Juliet Morrison • A police constabulary aims to cut the time heavy hauliers have to wait for abnormal load escorts from their yards and when their drivers cross a county border.
From December, West Midlands Police plans to start a three-month trial to establish whether its western traffic sub division can meet a target of 45 minutes. The division handles around 80% of the loads passing through the West Midlands.
It covers the Black Country, Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Walsall and Dudley.
PC Mike Cox, project coordinator, hopes to improve response times by using rearranged shifts, which will increase the availability of bikes. And if no bikes are available, control staff will tell hauliers how long they can expect to wait. The control room currently takes two or more hours to respond to up to 15% of the calls for escorts.
Jon Hugill, chairman of the Heavy Transport ▪ Association and operations direc_ tor of Peterborough Heavy Haulage, welcomes the move. He estimates that PHH can lose up to Z700-a-week on one special types vehicle waiting for escorts.
But Ilugill says other forces will have to take similar action. The HTA is writing to chief constables asking for better co-ordination between forces.