Anything that is designed to make the process of road transport more efficient, therefore enabling those working within the supply chain to make more money, is laudable.
However, a year and a half after is started the DfT’s longer semi-trailer trial has proved steadfastly inefficient in getting actual trailer units onto the roads to enable Risk Solutions to start generating useful trial information.
As Andy Mair, head of engineering at the FTA, said while discussing the news that the DfT plans to shake-up the trial to kick-start it back into life: “While the DfT issued the original allocations fairly enough it appears, as there inevitably always is, that many operators applied for them on a purely speculative basis.”
Indeed, the choice to issue 180 operators with allocations while laudable was perhaps naive in hindsight. With no increase in the GCW limit for UK hauliers past 44-tonnes, longer semi-trailers were naturally always going to appeal to the niche of companies that do high cube, low weight work, trunking consistent loads on a consistent, around the clock basis.
It’s become apparent talking to operators that many applied to avoid being left out but now the initial clamour for longer semi trailers has died down, they haven’t a clue where to fit the trailers into their existing work and are put off by the additional cost of the required steer axle. Fear that customers may even demand a reduction in rates - ‘well, you can get more on it’ attitude - also prevail.
It means that after an initial flourish, the trial has moved along at a pace much akin to an asthmatic ant carrying heavy shopping, with just 500 longer semi-trailers on the road from the total allocation of 1,814.
With the 31 December allocation deadline fast approaching, even the doughty DfT has recovered from its collective denial and conceded things need to change.
Nick Hay, MD of Fowler Welch, who runs more than 300 vehicles but was allocated just three trailers [although now has four] a year and a half ago, was blunt about the trial to date. “It’s a farce. Why allocate trailers to people that were clearly not going to run them? The DfT simply doesn’t listen.”
Syed Ziaullah, chief executive of APC Overnight, which received just four trailers as part of the original allocation, summed up the current situation as “wasted time”.
“We could have been pro-actively involved in the trial. Running longer semi-trailers requires a different mind-set [to general haulage]. I wish there had been some sort of evaluation before the allocations were made,” he said.
The masterplan (revised)
So, the DfT has launched a consultation, setting out how it will reboot the longer semi-trailer trial.
Existing allocations will be honoured until the 31 December deadline. However, within the next few months the department will open up the remaining allocation – with no ultimate deadline – on a first come, first served basis.
Those holding allocations will be welcome to apply for more, as will any operators that haven’t been involved to date.
Fearing any further inertia in regard getting units on the road would cause the trial pronounced political harm, the DfT is proposing that the new allocations it issues will be on a trailer or trailer-batch basis at the point that operators are ready to order them. Crucially they will last for only two to three months (before expiring).
While understandable, the proposal has drawn fire from the trailer manufacturers themselves as being unrealistic. “It’s another example of a statement from the DfT that has not been as well thought through as it should be. Despite having been running the trial for a year and a half it seems like a knee-jerk reaction,” said one senior figure at a trailer manufacturer.
While the majority of manufacturers believe a longer-semi trailer reorder, effectively where all the engineering has been done and you’re working to an existing design is achievable in three months, a significant proportion of longer semi-trailers are bespoke.
As Andy Dodge, sales director at manufacturer Lawrence David, explained: “You could turn a longer semi-trailer around in two to three months if all the engineering was done. To engineer it from new you’re looking at more like three to five months. There are 180 operators with allocations [as stands], and even amongst individual operators they often want differing trailer designs.”
The FTA is still sounding out its members but Mair suggested six months would be preferred by most (to date), which would still arguably achieve the DfT’s aims but also give operators and manufacturers the time needed to get things done.
An elegant solution
However, The Hub particularly liked Darren Holland, group sales director at Cartwright Group’s idea, which is the sort of practical approach the trial needs.
“Our preferred option would be for allocation to be given based on evidence of securing a contract / operation to support the equipment.
"A good way to determine how this is allocation is given an initial green light is to allow the operator to determine if the equipment suits, then when proven that it [does] the actual allocation is given on receipt of an order to the manufacturer. Once this is given to the manufacturer then a time scale should no longer be an issue,” he said.
Over to you DfT, with the consultation closing on the 9 July, time is short, after all.