This month the government unveiled a plan to reduce all our motoring insurance premiums by making it an offence to keep an uninsured vehicle.

It is estimated that four per cent of drivers – that’s 1.4 million – in this country are not insured, resulting in a mammoth £500bn a year in payouts for accidents because the driver and his car disappear into a seemingly untraceable fog.

In short, the new system being rolled out allows for an uninsured vehicle to be simply destroyed, although in long there’s a bit of a process to go through first.
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Philosophy collided with business and statutes last week after the rates levied by a roadside recovery operator were branded “immoral” by a company staring down the wrong end of a £3,000 bill.

R McDowell Haulage almost needed another recovery operator to revive its boss after 24/7 Recovery and Rescue invoiced the West Yorks operator for dealing with the aftermath of an RTA in Flintshire.

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In an industry burdened for better or worse with myriad regulations the launch of a consultation into the Senior Traffic Commissioner’s Statutory Guidance and Directions represents an opportunity for things to get a little less complicated.

As a result anyone who holds an Operator’s licence could do worse than sift through the documents that the Senior TC is now asking for feedback on.

The background to the consultation is that The Local Transport Act 2008 introduced a new statutory role for the Senior TC, who until that point had been operating under an administrative function only.

This change also provided an opportunity for the STC in his new role to “rationalise, simplify and improve” the current Guidance and Directions.

Up until now Gs and Ds have been issued as and when and could do with tidying up and being whittled down so that clear information exists about how TCs make their decisions and how operators can continue to run legally.

This has now been completed and there are now 12 statutory G and D documents that the STC has created and on which he is consulting stakeholders.

These include appeals, delegation of authority, impounding, financial standing, operating centres, transport managers and so on.

It is hoped that by simplifying the process and making explicitly clear what is expected of operators in order to comply there will be fewer PIs and fewer cases submitted to the TCs for consideration. VOSA should also benefit by improving its own efficiencies and reducing case handling time.

The Freight Transport Association says it is currently analysing the documents and investigating their impact on freight operators; it will respond in due course.

However, anyone with a vested interest in this industry can respond; after all, if someone was claiming that a process was underway that aims to make it easier for you to know how to comply you’d want to get involved, wouldn’t you?
See: http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/open/ for more information about the consultation. The closing date is 25 February.

For further information contact Anton Balkitis or Lucy Wood on 0800 046 3066 or visit the website if you are looking for motoring solicitors.

Every so often the issue over the Traffic Commissioners’ (TCs) independence is raised in the news pages of the trade press.

In the past it has normally been prompted by a disgruntled operator unhappy with a decision made against it at a public inquiry who, almost like the stages of grief, then segues neatly into dark suspicion of the relationship between the TCs and VOSA.

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Apologies for referring to the Big Society again (first time this year…) but in Michael Thompson’s opinion at least, confusion over its definition has spread to the police force. They are about as chuffed with his attempts to unleash his own ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ as they are about the hitherto unknown capacity for students to organise themselves better than they can.

The driver was quoted in the Daily Mail as saying he was carrying out his “civic duty” when he flashed his headlights at oncoming cars on the A46 coming out of Grimsby to warn them of an approaching police speed trap.
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