Truckwatch on the road again
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by Amanda Bradbury • Life is to be breathed back into the Road Haulage Association's haulier-led truck theft information service, Truckwatch, this week.
Insurer Norwich Union has agreed to sponsor a revamped scheme in Norfolk from the New Year following an open meeting between hauliers and police in Norwich on 30 November: more than 100 operators agreed to subscribe.
Commercial vehicle theft losses in Norfolk have risen by more than 1,000% in two years to £3.2m A fee is to be charged for the first time: around £20 is expected to cover membership for a year but costs will depend on crime levels and subscriber numbers.
The Norfolk scheme is being indemnified by broker Norwich Union which will sponsor it by initially paying fax bills: full costs will be passed on to Hauliers travelling in Kent are more likely to be checked at the roadside until 19 December as county police launched its first all-out campaign to combat soaring truck theft levels in the county.
A truck driver has been kidnapped and dumped on the Al at Newark: thieves stole around £30,000 worth of wine and spirits from his trailer.
Islington police in London are appealing for witnesses after a French truck driver was duped out of his load of lingerie worth nearly £70,000.
haulier members.
The revamped service aims to fax details of stolen vehicles simultaneously to member companies. They in turn would pass on information to their drivers who would be asked to report sightings to the police.
Originally operating on a fax chain system, Truckwatch was widely adopted as a free service in the 1980s, then abandoned except in the West Midlands, Kent, Cleveland and Durham.
Insurance broker Eagle Star this week undertook to sponsor the existing scheme in the West Midlands which will be replaced by the new system by 1994. The RHA's insurance service is looking at other areas with live schemes.
The RHA admits the original scheme was flawed because each member in the chain was capable of breaking it by not responding.