Owners face drivers peeding fines
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• Operators and trade associations in the transport industry have reacted angrily to a proposal by Junior Transport Minister Peter Bottomley that vehicle owners should become liable for motorway speeding fines levied on their drivers.
"A move such as this will not motivate drivers to observe the law if they know someone else will pick up the tab," says Freight Transport Association planning and traffic services manager Don McIntyre. "The idea is unacceptable in theoretical and practical terms. We're at the top of a pretty slippery slope if this is a serious consideration. The answer has got to be to give more resources to the police and not to make the employer the scapegoat."
"It's illogical," says Peter Bevins of Vehicle Contract Hire and Leasing. "It means that the deterrent not to speed is taken away from the driver and put upon the vehicle owner. It is all wrong."
"It could be disastrous for us," says BRS director George Inch. "We have 2,500 rental trucks out there, with no direct control over the drivers. I can see there is an argument to make us share some of the responsibility for the offences of our own drivers, but not of someone else's. I would have thought that the administrative burden would be incredibly heavy for a scheme like this."
Speaking on BBC Radio's World at One programme at the end of last year Bottomley said that a comprehensive series of changes to the motorway regulations is being considered as part of a review he will present to Transport Secretary Paul Chaimon in April, many of which have been prompted by a recent spate of fatal accidents.
There will be a three-month review of the country's motorway regulations, and other measures Bottomley is considering include making the 50mph (80krn/h) speed limit in contraflows mandatory instead of advisory, and making contractors pay penalties on all repair projects which fall behind schedule. The review will also consider extra road signs, better fog sensors, better hazard warnings and 20 new motorway service areas.
On his idea to make vehicle owners liable for fines, Bottomley said: "The police are experimenting with photographic and video evidence, but the problem is that you have to get hold of a motorist immediately after he has offended. The Government is going to consider whether owner liability can be used for moving traffic."
Hauliers already face owner liability for fixed-penalty offences such as parking illegally or failing to display a current vehicle excise duty disc. "We don't like the principle at all," says the Road Haulage Association.
Roy Bowles of Roy Bowles Transport says that the scheme appears to be "unworkable". He said that a truck driver is like the captain of a ship and the operator like the admiral of the fleet. Once the vehicle has left the operating centre "the captain is in charge", he says.