What did you tell the transport select committee about the performance of government motoring agencies?
It is a curate’s egg – some bits are better than others. We have had a period of uncertainty with the changes going on at the agencies.
For example, the merger – or as some have suggested takeover - of the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) by Vehicle Operator Services Agency (VOSA) and other changes at the DVA and DVLA that will take a few years to go through.
The jury is out on a number of issues. Some are performing better than others. There are some key areas to engage with.
We are looking for a progressive approach to driver CPC requirements (the Driver Certificate of Professional Competence) which encourage the idea of continuous personal development (CPD) for drivers. We want to encourage companies at every level to take a proactive and thoughtful and positive view of driver CPC.
At the committee I was pleased to hear Leon Daniels, managing director of surface transport at Transport for London talk about continuous professional development for truck drivers.
That is a concept we have been pushing strongly with the DfT. We want to see in that area them really encouraging and facilitating the industry to take a positive view of the regulation and to streamline some of the regulatory requirements.
CPD is a concept we really introduced in 2013 in discussion with the DSA and government.
What are the advantages of CPD for employers?
It is something which employers particularly can tune into, It brings on the skills of the drivers as is needed by that driver and that company – a lot of the core skills for drivers are embedded already in the culture of the better companies.
Some of the core skills are increasingly absolutely central to what the companies are requiring day to day anyway, and so the idea of a really flexible, diversified approach to CPD is something we are looking for from the DSA.
What action is needed to deal with foreign hauliers working in the UK?
I was asked by the committee about foreign vehicles. After strong lobbying by the RHA something called the high-risk traffic initiative was launched by the DfT in 2008 which was essentially a new tranche of money for enforcement against foreign vehicles.
In my evidence I wanted to recognise what has been achieved but I also said we are far from there yet and this is not a time to ease up our efforts, particularly in respect of serious offenders.
For example, the falsification of drivers’ hours records. The
RHAconsiders that those involved in falsifying driver records should be given a custodial sentence.
At the moment we are nowhere near an adequate response in terms of foreign vehicles. We also want serious and serial offenders in the UK face a more targeted, visible and effective measures to identify them and take appropriate action.
The purpose is to improve the management of road safety risk and to ensure fair competition - the two issues formally identified in a protocol between the traffic commissioners, VOSA and the DfT as the foundations of the HGV licensing system. Both are important in terms of serious offenders. It is a road safety issue and it is a competition issue. Falsification of drivers’ hours records is a really serious issue and we are looking for a more robust approach in the UK. We want to eradicate the practice.
What was the
RHA’s response to the recent Budget?
Overall it was a good Budget. We welcome the confirmation of the fuel duty freeze in this parliament. We had actually said we could go further and cut by 3p, but we recognise what has been done, largely as result of the FairFuelUK campaigning alliance - the
RHAis a founder and key contributor. That has been the focus of our efforts on fuel duty. A key to its success has been that it is an alliance between motorists, with their voting power, and hauliers.
It has been astoundingly effective and the impact on business and on hauliers has been extremely positive.
We were very pleased to see the increase in the annual investment allowance to £500,000 - a very positive measure.
One area I would mention where we were disappointed was the need for a more robust approach to payment terms from big companies to smaller suppliers.
That is an issue of very great importance to our members - we are hoping we will hear more about it from government in the coming weeks and months. We have been very active in campaigning on this issue.
The chancellor keeps talking about measures to get money to the SME sector through the banks. The most effective way of boosting SME cash flow is to require the big companies to pay money more promptly – that money is the SMEs in the first place.
We are proposing a very small regulatory burden requirement to report policy and practice in the annual reporting accounts.