Trade associations welcomed the new London Freight Enforcement Partnership launched by TfL and partner agencies earlier this week, although the RHA called on the transport body to make the results of the enforcement project more visible to the industry.
The partnership will see TfL, the DVSA, the Metropolitan Police and the City of London Police pool their resources to form a team of more than 90 officers, plus a team of analysts, to tackle the issue of non-compliant operators in the capital.
The Enforcement Partnership’s predecessor, the Industrial HGV Task Force, was launched in October 2013, and has stopped more than 6,030 vehicles since then– 4,500 of which resulted in prosecutions.
RHA director of policy Jack Semple said the association “welcomed the partnership,” and added that it had “been concerned by the enforcement deficit in London that has started to be put right by the HGV Task Force”.
He added that the RHA would like to see more “transparency” for the industry: “It’s important, so that they can see what you’re doing and why, and who it is that you’re after.”
Christopher Snelling, FTA head of national and regional policy, said the FTA was fully supportive of the partnership, and added: “We need to get to the point that there’s an impression that if you operate non-compliantly in London, you will get caught.
“The number of HGVs involved in fatal incidents has almost halved in the last
10 years. This is partly due to the investment by the logistics industry in improved vehicles, drivers and practices.”
