RHA waits on due diligence claim
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• The Road Haulage Association will wait until after the forthcoming General Election before it presents the Department of Transport with any proposals to include a clause for due diligence in the current overloading laws.
Despite receiving a "mixed" reception from magistrates and trading standards officers, the RHA's due diligence campaign seems to be gathering impetus.
According to RHA director general Freddie Plaskett, the association's travelling presentation on the overloading issue (cm 15 November 1985) has had a "generally favourable reaction — some of the more dogmatic trading standards officers have said no — but most have said yes."
Following its recent meeting with transport secretary John Moore, the RHA has been asked to prepare a workable draft amendment to the existing overloading legislation which would allow a due diligence clause. Plaskett, however, says that no proposals will be presented before the General Election. Given the current speculation on a June election date it now seems unlikely that the RHA will present its case before the autumn. The RHA has asked transport lawyer Stephen Kirkbright to help it draft a suitable amendment.
ID The RHA is getting tough with members who take too long to pay their subscriptions. In the association's 1986 annual report (see Business News), director general Freddie Plaskett says that the RHA's "new financial stability enabled us to continue our campaign against slow payers in 1986 and, on the principle that these things should begin at home, a large number of sleeping members, whose subscriptions had long been in deep arrears, were removed from membership."