Survey slams enforcement
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by Miles Brignall • Police enforcement of commercial vehicle safety regulations varies depending upon where you are in the country, according to a report by lorry safety campaign group Brake and the Road Haulage Association.
They have found that the number of officers trained to issue prohibition notices ranges from just one in Suffolk to 283 in the Metropolitan region. As a percentage of traffic officers this equates to between 1.4% and 40%.
The report goes on to assert that officers dedicated to traffic duties are increasingly being drawn away to other duties. It highlights problems of training, claiming that of the 711 police officers that attended Vehicle Inspectorate prohibition courses, only 447 (63%) passed.
Areas short of trained officers are said to include East Anglia, Humberside and the Midlands, while police authorities in West Mercia, Durham, Kent and Northern Ireland are said to be putting significant resources into training enforcement staff.
Brake wants the Home Office to launch a detailed study into the funding of CV enforcement with particular attention paid to forces such as West Mercia that have invested in dedicated commercial vehicle units.
Inspector Malcolm Collis of Thames Valley police admits that there is a problem, but says: "There are lot of agencies with piecemeal interests in trucks, yet the police are the only officers authorised to stop them on the road, and we are now being told it is not one of our priorities."