The scene of the accident. Pictures: Reader Elly Henson

A LORRY loaded with lager damaged a wall, bus shelter and car when it shed dozens of kegs in a busy Suffolk road.

The Carlsberg truck came to grief on the A12 where it runs through the village of Yoxford, at the junction with High Street.

Witnesses said the lorry had just come round a sharp corner near the Kings Head pub when dozens of the kegs fell off the back and careered in every direction.

A wall, pub sign, car and bus shelter were all hit by the rolling barrels shortly after midday yesterday.

No load needed recovering here! Lots of drivers helping the poor lorry driver. Fortunately no injuries to people in recovering the Kegs or when they spilt.

If this happened frequently, the house prices in Yoxford would go up!

Regards

Kevin

Transport is very competitive and often very collaborative, so it’s a good idea to follow people in the same industry. Not only can you find the most up to date transport related news, but if you cannot cover a piece of work you have a source of potential sub contractors.

If transport related followers are just what you are looking for, why don’t you pop over and have a look and add a comment with your details.

In the next few days, The Courier Shop will be launching their twitter for couriers and other transport professionals ebook, so if that is of interest to you, why not bookmark the page and come back to it?

Regards

Kevin

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The truly amazing thing, from what could have been a fatal accident, is that no one was hurt.

(c) BBC Website

The road was closed whilst the police investigated the accident.

Kevin

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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The commentary isn’t in English and it only lasts a few seconds, but it shows what could happen if you transport live fish.

Couriers are generally not allowed to transport livestock, although it is possible to transport live fish such as Koi, if they are contained correctly.

That must have been dreadful to clean up and the fish probably couldn’t be saved - they were being covered with some sort of sand towards the end of the clip.

The correct packaging can prevent a lot of damage if your vehicle goes over, so can the correct training of your driver. Saving money on packing is a false economy, if your vehicle goes over and your goods are damaged your customer is let down and your supply chain is broken.

Don’t let that happen!

Sarah

0844 884 3331

You never know when you may get in trouble and we are here to help. If you are involved in an acident and cannot move your freight to it’s destination then give us a call. If the acident is not your fault it may even be possible to recover what we cost via the other persons insurance - speak to you insurers to find out if you can do this.

Sarah

For when your delivery must take place

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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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Europe’s “Jules Verne” space freighter has destroyed itself in a controlled burn-up over the southern Pacific.

The 13.5-tonne cargo ship had completed a six-month mission to the space station and was packed with the orbiting platform’s rubbish.

Two engine firings were required to slow the freighter sufficiently to pull it into the atmosphere.

The European and US space agencies had chase planes in the air to try to capture the fireball on video.

Astronauts on the space station reported seeing the light from the falling freighter.

On a serious note, Freight Recovery and Load Rescue services only apply in the Mainland UK. We can make introductions for services in Ireland, but are not responsible for anything that may happen when using our recommendations.

Give us a call on 0844 884 3331

Kevin

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How does it work?

• Your vehicle is involved in accident
• The driver cannot take the vehicle to it’s destination
• Place a call to us
• Within 60 minutes, you will have professional freight recovery specialists trans-shipping your items and couriering them on to their end destination
• If the accident isn’t your drivers fault, then this is a recoverable cost from the other parties insurers

With Road Traffic Accidents up year on year, this kind of service is vital to keeping your goods on the road and helping you meet your deadlines.

In 2006 39 LGV drivers were killed and 429 were seriously injured.  Also 13 passengers in those vehicles were killed and 135 were seriously injured.  Source : Your Road Risk

What does it cost?

You will be charged a loading and unloading, plus mileage fee for the delivery plus the call out charge of £50+VAT. If you are a member of Rubs, then as a membership benefit, the call out fee is waived.

If the accident is not your or your drivers fault, then all costs may be recovered from your insurers.

How do we book?

Just give us a call 24/7 on 07816 528421 or during office hours on 0844 884 3331

Your supply chain is that bit safer and as a RUBS member you get a free call out saving you £50+VAT, and it costs nothing to join!

Kevin

Freight Recovery for when your cargo, freight and goods must get there today.

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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