Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is unlikely to roll out its own version of London's Direct Vision Standard, due to it having less resource than TfL and, arguably, less need.
Freightinthecity.com caught up with Helen Smith, head of logistics at TfGM, at the Alexandra Palace Expo, when she said a Direct Vision Standard was not on the cards for the city.
“One reason is that we’re a long way behind TfL,” she said. “They’ve got a lot of resource, they’ve got a big team, and they’ve been doing it for years. Manchester’s just got me! So we’re in no hurry.”
“But the other things is that within Manchester we don’t have that same disproportionate representation of cyclists involved in collisions with HGVs.
“That’s not to say that we want to sit back and accept any level of culture, because we want zero tolerance, but it’s about us working with the industry in a supportive way. It’s not about limitations, we’re about enabling, rather than using a big stick. It’s getting it off the ground and seeing how it evolves.”
Smith added that TfGM would be working with the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University to help them meet the Clocs standard.
It also plans to work with local authorities and transport operations, and eventually reach out to smaller hauliers.
Smith said: “We’ve received a lot of positivity around it, but in the main we’re preaching to the converted at the minute. We’re engaging with the higher level operators who are already engaged with the standard, or, if they’re not, they’re quite open to doing so.
“So the first big challenge will be how do we link in with the smaller operators?
“Is the approach consolidation, so lower the number of operators coming into the city centre? That way you don’t need to reach the whole supply chain, but you’ve got compliance in your open areas, which is the critical part at the minute.”