UNCREATIVE ACCOUNTING
Page 5
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• Now don't tell anyone that you heard it from us, but Warwickshire County Trading Standards will be prosecuting fewer hauliers this year.
Does this mean that fewer operators are breaking the law? Not a bit of it. Trading Standards officials are being forced to neglect road traffic duties in order to keep within ludicrous budget restrictions — and that includes a predicted 75% cut in overloading checks this year (see lead story, pages 4-5).
If you've just spent some valuable time in the queue for a roadside check this might not seem such a bad idea. In fact the hauliers who stand to avoid prosecution in Warwickshire this year are the very ones that need to be hammered, because they are the minority who think it is acceptable to break the law on overloading, as they do on hours, licensing and bringing the entire industry into disrepute.
But the story doesn't stop there. Kent says it will be cutting its truck checking activities by 60 — and Cheshire says: "We are moving to totally eliminate road checking of vehicles."
Perhaps the most telling quote of the week comes from Warwick, which says that budgetary restraints will force enforcement down to pre-1983 levels "when we were given money to expand our road traffic duties". They must have thought it was worthwhile spending money on it then, so why not now?
The road haulage industry, possibly more than any other, is fully aware of the need to control costs. Of course the chaps at the Treasury have to balance the Budget — but money pruned off enforcement is a pittance compared to the long-term cost, in both time and money, of roads damaged by overloaded wagons. And giving the cowboys a free hand is giving the law-abiding majority of hauliers an invidious choice: attempt to compete on unequal terms or become law-breakers themselves.
Because one thing's for sure: trying to control errant hauliers by slashing budgets is like trying to stop a burglar by leaving the front door open and putting a welcome sign in the window.