Just two months after his appointment as roads minister at the DfT, Robert Goodwill has been relieved of his direct responsibilities for the freight and logistics industry.
The man taking the reins (again) is none other than Stephen Hammond, the minister who formerly held the position until Goodwill stepped up in October.
Could Goodwill’s possibly be the shortest tenure as the government’s freight minister in history?
The former Conservative Party whip was appointed as the minister for roads and freight in October last year, during David Cameron’s ministerial reshuffle.
Within a few days of taking up the position, Goodwill praised the industry for its crucial role in economic recovery at the Commercial Vehicle Forum in London, and also revealed a boom in the number of longer semi-trailer applications.
He also proposed the removal of 230 wrongly-certified imported fuel tankers from Britain’s roads in November, some of which had been operating for a number of years.
But despite his background as a truck driver and much of his political activity being focused on the transport industry, it seems the DfT felt he wasn’t the man for the job.
A spokesman told The Hub that Hammond took back the freight role in December, barely two months after he was appointed as the minister to oversee rail instead.
Goodwill remains at the DfT with responsibility for roads, cycling and aviation amongst others.
Unless the government has another reshuffle in the meantime, The Hub thinks Goodwill is unlikely to be featured in next year’s edition of MT’s Power Players, in which he appears as number six this year…