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SERVICES
Heavy haulage operators are used to life in the slow lane but most complain that using police escorts is far too time-consuming. With privatisation looming, can the service be improved without increasing costs and reducing safety standards?
Five years ago, an experiment between Glasgow and the Home Counties demonstrated the amount of time being wasted on long-distance movements of heavy loath
Brian Rawcliffe, director of Lancashirebased I B Rawcliffe & Son, found that with a police escort the route took nearly a week to complete. With a private escort it took only three days.
"The private escort did not have to wait at
county boundaries for the police escort to change," says Rawcliffe, a former chairman of the Heavy Transport Association (HTA). "It proved their greater efficiency"
Delays are said to be even worse these days as more and more resources are focused on core areas of policing, leaving peripheral services such as escorting to be dealt with as and when manpower allows. Ray Parcel!, transport manager of MJ Rolls Transport in Cambridgeshire, reckons on doing only three to four hours of driving in an eight-hour day. "Private escorts would be absolutely ideal," he says.
Escorting costs the police at least £7m a year. In November, the Home Office published a consultation document proposing that motorway escorting should be privatised.
Obligation
At present, heavy hauliers have to give 48hours' notice to relevant police forces before a Special Types load is moved, but have no legal obligation to wait for a police escort. If involved in an accident, however, they could be prosecuted for dangerous driving or driving without due care and attention.
The Home Office proposals are broadly in line with what the HTA has recommended. HTA chairman Richard Dunkerley says private escorts could do the job equally as well as police on motorways. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) is also supportive.
Chief Inspector Philip Oddie, who represents ACP° on the Home Office consultative group about privatisation, believes that in some cases the blue lights of police escorts actually cause confusion among the public.
"They expect to see a blue light and give way to it," says Oddie. "With abnormal loads, it is actually there to warn them. Blue lights
can cause people to turn to look at what the police are doing; that in itself can be a danger."
Not all heavy hauliers agree, however. Jim Macauley, managing director of Cadzow Heavy Haulage, based near Glasgow, says charges would be astronomical and warns of serious safety implications.
"Every Tom, Dick and Harry has got a yellow light. People don't take notice of a yellow light the same as they do a blue light," says Macauley. lie argues that police escorts have access to vital traffic and weather information which simply would not be available to private escorts. "Suppose there is an accident in the road; you have no way of getting word to the vehicle."
Frustration
Frustration at police delays is not general throughout the country either. Mick Robins, managing director of Robins of Herstmonceux in East Sussex, says he has never really encountered problems. "If police say they are going to be there at a certain time, they are. I've had no real problems with them. The police do a damn good job."
John Atkinson, owner of Betchworth International I leavy Transport, based near Reigate in Surrey, says he would prefer it if the police continued the escorts but charged for it. "You then become their customer and therefore have certain rights. Sometimes you need an escort at a particular time. The Met, for example, has very set times of movement."
Some police forces already charge for escorting. South Wales Police has a set fee of £128 to escort loads to the Millennium Stadium site in Cardiff.
A police spokeswoman says: "We don't charge for escorts as a rule but because they have to come through the city centre, they have to come through in the early hours. That has implications for police overtime."
Brian Rawcliffe believes that once escorts are privatised on motorways, police will be quick to impose charges for escorts on other parts of the road network. "They will all get their acts together and they will charge you if you want to do something at a certain time."
Operators themselves are likely to absorb most of the motorway escorting work themselves, according to Tony Lovell, managing director of Convoi Exceptionnel which provides escorts in this country to foreign hauliers lacking the driver's mate that is required when transporting abnormal loads.
"I am absolutely sure hauliers in the business would do it themselves. They would set up their own deals within their organisation," says Lovell. He adds that in his experience the public has never misunderstood the warning signs used by his company. "It is like a moving road sign warning the public there is a load in front."
The HT.ks Dunkerley says the training needed for the work is likely to be rigorous. "We are looking at theoretical teaching in the classroom for some of it; practical experience on the road; and possibly some form of computer-based training, complete with simulations."
Private escorts are still some way off, even though the deadline for submissions about the consultation paper is January 14. "Wheels of government move slowly," says Dunkerley.
But after almost 10 years of discussions about change, he believes something is finally about to happen. "We have a good feeling that it is now rolling along. Something has to be done because the system in operation at the moment is becoming intolerable."
E. by Guy Sheppard
ALL CHANGE
* The Home Office is proposing private escorts for heavy loads on motorways and linking dual carriageways, provided no direction of traffic is required en route. The escorts would be limited to loads weighing between 100 and 150 tonnes, 4.3-4.6m wide and longer than 27.4m. If approved, the changes ore likely to be subject to a one-year transitional period.
A handful of businesses already provide escorts for abnormal loads in the UK. Convoi Exceptionnel, based in Southampton, charges £165 a day which includes mileage. The escort van is a Citroen Berling which is equipped with VHF radios to maintain constant contact with the truck driver.
Some police forces charge for escorts as well. Norfolk Police says that if an operator requires one at a specific time of day, the first officer is provided free but additional ones cost 267.70 for the first two hours and £33.85 for every hour thereafter. The escort vehicle costs 20.56 per mile. Private escorts are widely used on the Continent. ISS, based in Germany, charges approximately 21.50 per mile for an escort van which is equipped to deal with breakdowns and accidents.
If you would like your views taken into account during the consultation period write to The Home Office, Operational Policing Policy Unit, Traffic Section, Room 545, 50 Queen Anne's Gate, London SW1 9AT,