Earlier this week, TfL launched the London Freight Enforcement Partnership – an evolved model of the Industrial HGV Task Force it started up two years ago.
This ‘new and improved’ scheme will see TfL, the DVSA, the Met and City of London Police enhance their enforcement work across the capital with better co-ordination and cooperation at what TfL described as “both a strategic and tactical level”.
The work done by the Partnership’s predecessor, the Industrial HGV Task Force, was unquestionably valuable. In the two years since its launch, the team targeted and stopped more than 6,030 vehicles it thought to be part of a non-compliant operation, seized 87 vehicles and saw 4,500 prosecutions though the criminal justice system.
Great news, undeniably, but what about the rest of the country? As the government’s Northern Powerhouse is desperate to remind us, there are other cities in the country that may benefit from the attention London receives.
Peter Hearn, DVSA head of policy development and product (vehicles), points out that London is unique and fortunate in its possession of TfL.
“There are other big cities other than London that may well have their own set of problems. Hopefully local authorities can take TfL’s lead on how to crack down on these.”
Hearn added that the Partnership was an example of where the DVSA might be able to invest more funding under the agency’s new remote enforcement approach to maintaining industry compliance.
He explained that with the resource freed up by the avoidance of excessive site visits, DVSA would be more likely to invest funds in schemes such as the London Freight Enforcement Partnership across the country.
Jack Semple, director of policy at the RHA, called on TfL to be more “transparent” with the results the partnership sees.
Sir Peter Hendy, former transport commissioner said he didn’t see why this would be a problem. “There’s no reason for it to be kept a secret” he said.