Hauliers get the run-around
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by Stephen Geary A GREATER London Council plan to ban lorries over 40ft long from London at night is likely to cost hauliers and ratepayers at least a quarter of a million pounds In extra fuel costs and signposting in the first year alone.
It is planned that the ban should operate from the end of 1977 and will affect trucks between 7pm and 7arn using an area of 125 square miles bounded by the North and South Circular Roads.
But last week a GLC spokeswoman admitted to CM that the research into the ban was minimal. The council was working on an estimate of 1,400 trucks a night passing through London—"I don't know if a survey was done, but this is an estimate," she said.
And the council intends to put the onus on the drivers to get out of the banned area before the 7pm deadline. If you are in London in a rushhour traffic jam then it will be up to you to get out of the area or park the truck before 7pm.
"There are a lot of lorry parks where the drivers can go if they are in London when the ban comes into force," said the spokeswoman. "We will be requesting that the drivers make sure that their journeys keep them out of the city at the banned times."
The only concession to the operators in the plan is a provision for one east-west route through the city which is designed to relieve pressure on the South Circular Road. The route will run along A13, City Road, Marylebone Road, VVestway and A40.
A statement from the GLC pointed out that this route was being operated only to relieve the South Circular on environmental grounds.
The council says that by operating the ban 24 hours a day 3,500 vehicles would be kept out of the area-10 per cent of the heavy lorry journeys in the area. But again these are only estimates.
"It will be up to the haulier to find alternative routes," said the GLC. Its costing estimates also make interesting reading: the estimates say that the night ban will cost the haulage industry £100,000 per year with another £150,000 going on signposting. There is no allowance for inflation.
Already the FTA and RHA have criticised the ban—the RHA is also annoyed that the GLC stated the Association had agreed to the plan, "We will be taking this up with the council most vigorously," said an RHA spokesman,
More mileage
"A lot of traffic needs to be in London after 7pm," he said. "This ban will add to the mileage and the time involved; what will happen if a driver's hours quota runs out within the limit of the ban?"
The Freight Transport Association called the plan "expensive window dressing," and is not satisfied with the routes that would be left to drivers avoiding the banned area. "The low bridges mean that high vehicles will have to be diverted even further. The route provides no river crossing at the eastern end."
Bridges on the routes out of the city are as low as 12ft 3in and the GLC is to make only one concession to the cause of the truck in the plan. A bridge at Old Ford Road, in the East End, is to be either raised or the road lowered to 'give greater clearance.
"But," the GLC admitted, "there are problems and we shall have to iron them out in the 18 months before the ban will come into effect."
One of those problems will be in enforcing the ban. The Metropolitan Police refused to comment on the plan. "This is very early days and we shall have to talk to the GLC about it before it is due to come into effect," said a spokesman.
Even now, driving along the North Circular at night, it is possible to see trailers and trucks left by their drivers in lay-bys to be picked up later.
Many London boroughs have restricted parking of trucks and the new ban will •add to the numbers of trucks left on the roads outside London.
The GLC claimed that its new plan (CM March 19) for break-bulk complexes is seen as one way round the problem. The sites are at Neasden, where there will be two, and
Brentford.
The feasibility study for these plans will be ready in June and then the council will have to decide whether to go ahead with the plans.
But a paper produced for the GLC on the ban plan raises the problems of enforcement and quotes the police as saying that with their present limited manpower enforcement would be "very difficult." The report also questions the use of the term access. The only reason for a lorry over 40ft being in the city after 7pm is that it is bound for a destination in the city. Police are worried that the term lacks definition, but the GLC report says : "In practice the police should be able to identify a large proportion of those who cannot legitimately claim a need for access into the area."
The plan also ignores a call from the industry for a northsouth route through the city and better refreshment and toilet facilities for drivers.
Adding to the confusion was a report that councillors who voted for the ban at a GLC meeting left the meeting thinking they had voted to ban only trucks over 16 tons—they only found out what they had voted to ban when the GLC's publicity department's announcement came out last week.
The report says that the night ban would give significant benefits for the roads of Inner London and that it would also relieve the problems of congestion on perimeter roads and the through route as the traffic using the roads at night is much less than during the day.
The detailed scheme will take another three or four months to produce.