The original visio of JEDI was as a all-encompassin answer
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f enforcement. B how many of u really know wh JEDI is and how will affe hauliers out on th road? David Crai finds out why th system has bee described as th stumbling bloc which prevents th implementation impoundin After years of dialogue and debate the Government finally seems to have accepted the industry's argument that impounding unlicensed trucks is the only remaining way to thwart the seemingly ever-multiplying number of cowboy hauliers.
Although Government support was implied in this year's white paper daughter document on freight (CM, 11-17 March), it was ex-Transport Minister John Reid's speech to industry leaders at the recent Road Haulage Association dinner that finally settled any remaining doubts.
Hauliers, conscious that the industry's public image has never been as important as it is now, were by and large heartened by Reid's pledge to back any Private Member's bill on impounding.
Although he was not mentioned by name, the most likely recipient of this backing is Earl Attlee, who has confirmed to CM that he will introduce such a bill to the House of Lords within weeks (CM 20-26 May).
Vision of the future
Attlee wants to see a future where "the authorities can detect a vehicle being operated without an 0-licence and impound it".
Sounds simple? Well, on paper perhaps it does. In practice it is proving rather harder.
Attlee says the muscle behind his plan is JED I, the Joint Enforcement Database Initiative. Without it, he says, any attempt to bring in impounding, no matter how strong the will on all sides, would be a non-starter. But he adds that J EDI is not yet as strong as he would like it to be.
So what exactly is J EDI, and why is it of such importance?
The thinking behind it, which dates back to 1995, is to improve the usefulness and efficiency of the databases on haulage operators held by agencies such as the Vehicle Inspectorate, the Traffic Area Offices and the DVLA. The first priority was to provide VI examiners and Traffic Commissioners with significantly improved access to the information.
The first step was to equip every VI examiner with a laptop loaded with the licence details of all vehicles based in the region.
From the same date (April 1997) traffic and vehicle examiners would begin to use JE DI at roadside checks to give them instant access to an operator's basic details. The laptop would be linked to a central computer via a mobile phone, so if they stopped a vehicle from another area that vehicle's details could be downloaded there and then.
It was then envisaged that after August 1997 traffic and vehide examiners would have instant access to operators' annual test results. At the end of each day VI staff would plug the computers into phone sockets so the computers could update each other about the day's activities.
The second step would be to expand this "data warehouse" so that information could be shared between the VI, the Traffic Area Network and other enforcement bodies such as the police, the courts, trading standards and Customs and Excise.
That was the vision: what about the reality? And why does Attlee see J EDI as such a stumbling block to impounding?
John Clark, enforcement project manager at the VI, says the original aim, especially the timetable, has proved "optimistic". Delays, which he puts down to "teething problems" in software (not lack of funding), mean the "going live" of the first stage of the FEDI project did not take place until August last year.
"We managed to distribute the mobile computers to all our 500 officers by April 1997," Clark says. "For the first year we used an internal system of recording information on operators."
Computer problems
When the scheme went live in August the most apparent problems were with the physical operation of the computers. "The main worries were with screen visibility," says Clark.
The VI now has a series of vans parked near roadside checks, where officers can find information free of the vagaries of the British climate arid issue prohibitions if necessary.
Clark readily admits that the mobile computers are having an adverse effect on throughput. "Road checks are being slowed down," he says. "We are seeing fewer vehicles than we used to." Hauliers have also been talking about delays.
Dennis Beale, South Wales area manager of the VI, says he has responded to his officers' concerns about delays. Some, he says, had told him certain roadside checks have been "grinding to a halt" due to the time taken to key in information. "We have decided to allocate one extra man to every check," he says.
The VI computers are linked to computers at the various Traffic Area Network offices around the country. Andy Toth of the Eastbourne TAN says his office's access to the VI database is "very beneficial", but more development will improve the JED! scheme immensely.
"As yet we cannot provide VI officers with annual test results for operators or current convictions on Operator's Licences via the computer linkage," he says. VI officers at the roadside still have to phone the TAN offices to ask for the information that is on file.
"This is a problem down to us and not the ," says Toth. "We are updating our computers to do this."
Linkage with other enforcement agencies could be a year or more away, says Clark. With some, such as the police, even basic dialogue has hardly begun. "We have made no approaches to the police on .1 E D " he says. "We have had approaches from individual forces, but no national strategy for linking the police to JEDI has been developed."
One worry for law-abiding hauliers has already been outlined: the delays in road checks. But concerns about breaches of the Data Protection Act must also be addressed.
The Act gives individuals rights regarding data collection, and requires anyone who records and uses personal information on computer to be open about that use and to follow proper practices. The dangers occur if information is entered wrongly, is out of date or is confused with someone else's. The Data Protection Act allows you access to information held about yourself; this is known as the "right of subject access". You also have the right to have the information corrected or deleted, as appropriate.
Checking your data
• Write a "subject access" letter to the organisation. Ask for a copy of all the information held about you to which the Data Protection Act applies.
• If you do not receive a response within 40 days, or if the information you receive is wrong, contact the information line of the Data Protection Registrar who can ensure inaccurate information is corrected.
• There are exemptions to what information you can demand from the VI—for details contact the Data Protection Registrar.
• You are entitled to compensation through the courts if damage (not just distress) has been caused by unauthorised disclosure of your personal data or by inaccurate data.