Freight Emergency

Last June the law surrounding Cabotage changed and Uk companies were allowed to use drivers returning to European companies to deliver their goods. A lot of industry people thought that was a good thing, myself included until I started examining the laws regarding corporate manslaughter act.

Looking at in in more detail and reading and referring to an article on the Road Transport website, has left me in doubt that it’s not a good thing.

Do you really save money? What happens in the event of an accident? Who is liable if a foreign driver subcontracting for you has breached the law?

Subbing out work under cabotage rules can save on your costs, but who pays up if the foreign vehicle is not roadworthy or an accident occurs? Operators using cabotage rules to offload work on to foreign hauliers and save money are being warned they are setting themselves up for “astronomical” liability costs, unless they do their homework first. The rise in online freight exchanges for companies wanting to reduce empty running and subcontract work to minimise costs, coupled with escalating fuel prices, means using continental hauliers is seen as making good business sense.

But transport lawyers say it is so difficult to bring foreign-based haulage companies before a UK court if they are involved in an accident while working on your behalf and it is very likely your customer will pursue you instead. And alarmingly, due to a legislative loophole, foreign companies remain outside of the scope of the Corporate Manslaughter Act. This means that if they are involved in a death on UK roads, you could find yourself facing manslaughter charges. Hauliers carrying out cabotage journeys in this country operate under the conditions of carriage used by the UK operator, which often are the Road Haulage Association’s own guidelines. This limits liability of the haulier to any claim made against it and prevents it having to pay out excessive amounts of money to the customer in the event of an accident.

Obviously due diligence needs to be proved, and before subbing out work to a returning driving you should vet the company in question.  The Haulier who agrees the job with the customer is liable and not a haulier in another country who is a third party sub contractor.

It may be cheap in the short term, but the long term costs of not completing your vetting etc will put you out of business. You cannot claim limited liability if you do not have a system for checking those liabilities.

What can you do to limit you liabilities?

• Vet your subcontractors

• Check their references

• What’s their reputation in the industry like?

• Do they have a high turnover of drivers? -  a sure sign that the staff are not happy and the remainder of the team are making up the shortfall.

• Keep accurate records that you have done this.

It may take a bit of time, but it could save your business one day.

Sarah

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Driving a lorry is tough work compared to some jobs and many drivers are professional and work well within the boundaries of the UK law.

With the change of the Cabotage rules back in June, we are now seeing more and more foreign trucks on our roads, and potentially endangering lives.

LORRY drivers are endangering the public as a result of tiredness and faulty vehicles, police chief Richard Brunstrom warned yesterday.

The Chief Constable of North Wales listed disturbing examples of drivers who had been at the wheel for 19 days as he addressed a cross-party group of AMs on the problem.

However, while calling for a national debate on the threat, he said a clampdown on the problem would harm the Welsh economy.

Mr Brunstrom, who said that “people are literally dying” because of poor driving and maintenance standards, believes there is a particular problem with foreign-owned vehicles, particularly from new EU member states.

He said: “Something like 1% of lorries on our roads here in the UK are registered in other European countries but 8% of the fatalities involving commercial vehicles are caused by foreign-registered vehicles.”

Mr Brunstrom told the AMs there was “evidence to support the contention that foreign lorries are not as well managed [and] regulated as UK ones”.

He continued: “We have targeting regimes to identify rogue hauliers and rogue operators and rogue drivers on a European-wide basis now, but I would have to say there is nothing like enough reporting taking place here and elsewhere.”

The scale of the threat was demonstrated last month when the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) staged its biggest ever clampdown on unsafe lorries.

Officers inspected 3,628 “dangerous” vehicles – of which 2,273 were foreign-registered – and 1,889 were taken off the road.

Of the 1,355 UK-registered vehicles stopped by VOSA, 683 were breaking the law.

A driver stopped and arrested near Holyhead was carrying a false licence and two digital driver cards which he could use to falsify the hours he had worked. Another driver was found to have worked for 19 consecutive days without the required rest period. He was ordered to immediately take a 45-hour rest period.

The Chief Constable said: “There is an industry to defeat and undermine the European legislation.” The situation was “absolutely frightening”, he said.

However, he added that if Wales acts to stop dangerous lorry drivers the nation could pay an economic penalty.

He said: “If we start enforcing the law rigorously on the A55, we run a risk of severe economic damage to the port of Holyhead because the traffic will simply transfer to Liverpool if there was a lighter touch there.”

Describing new powers which will come into force next year, he said: “The police for the first time in the UK will be able to take effectively a fine – technically it’s a deposit in lieu of a fine – there and then. So all of a sudden foreign-registered vehicles are going to be subject to effective UK law.

“Previously, of course, you could just drive off and get back to your country and escape the jurisdiction.”

He added: “We do need to work in partnership with VOSA and we are getting next to nothing in terms of leadership, direction and support from Government – in London in particular – to address a bigger proportion of resources to this.”

Mike Farmer, a director of the Road Haulage Association, said: “We have no problem with proper, targeted enforcement. As in all industries, there is a very small proportion of cowboy operators.

“We want rid of them, along with everybody else. Let’s have standard, properly targeted enforcement.”

The full article can be found here

If their is sufficient evidence that foreign lorries are not as safe as ours on the road, then these need to be checked at the port, and the drivers made to tran-ship their loads if they have been driving too long or if their vehicles are unsafe.

The amount of vehicles that have been impounded after checks is significant, and it’s best in my opinion to keep these off the road from the start before another tragic accident happens

Kevin

Load Rescue and Freight Recovery

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I have been thinking about what a nutter Jeremy Clarkson is:

After crashing into a brick wall Jeremy Clarkson ‘At the moment, teenagers see Bruce Willis driving his car into a helicopter and imagine that you can get out afterwards and still be well enough to punch a baddie in the face. ‘This isn’t accurate. I emerged from my high speed head-on impact in what can only be described as screaming agony. ‘I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t think. ‘Everyone should experience this before they are given a licence.’Birmingham Same Day Couriers, Nov 2008

Should every lorry driver experience a crash? To see how it really feels and would it make them safer on the roads?

What do you think?

Kevin

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A lorry driver who was unanimously convicted of causing death by dangerous driving at an eight-day trial last month, has been given a two-and-a-half year prison sentence. Michael Coombes, 62, from Stowmarket in Suffolk, was driving a 22-tonne HGV eastbound along the A14 dual carriageway, at Bottisham, in May 2007. At the trial, the jury heard that Coombes failed to notice the stationary traffic ahead, which was queuing as a result of a broken-down lorry blocking the nearside lane.

Coombes was unable to explain why he failed to react in the 30 seconds before swerving at the last moment and smashing into the caravan at the back of the queue at an impact speed of 55mph. A eight-year-old boy was killed as a result of the accident. At the sentencing hearing, Christopher Paxton, defence barrister, said in mitigation : “Mr. Coombes had an impeccable driving record for 40 years, having driven many millions of miles conviction and accident free.”

Source Road Transport.com

Our thoughts are with both families, a tragedy that shouldn’t have happened. Transport companies need to take extra care with their drivers - this one had an impeccable driving record over 40 years. I hope they are supporting the driver through this, as well as the family involved if they can, or perhaps better expressed as if they are allowed.

Kevin

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A lorry transporting crates of canned beer for Fosters, bent in half around a Newbury a roundabout

Spilled load

In this instance, the lorry could not continue to transport the goods, and the company didn’t have a spare lorry to collect the load, and what was on the road.

It shut down that section of the road for 4 and a half hours. Calling Freight Emergency could have made all the difference, a small team help remove the cans from across the road and a team of sprinters and 7.5 tonne lorries to take the goods back to the depot.

In the case of no fault accidents, the cost is fully recoverable.

Give us a call on 0844 884 3331 or out of hours on 07816 528421

Kevin

For when your load needs rescuing