Examination of Witnesses (Questions 480
- 489)
WEDNESDAY 22 MARCH 2000
MS DIANA
LINNETT, MS
TARA GARNETT,
MR ALLEN
MARSDEN AND
MR GEORGE
BOYLE
480. So would it be a good idea to have a traffic
enforcement group?
(Mr Boyle) I personally think so, yes.
481. With special abilities, special training?
(Mr Boyle) Oh, yes, certainly. To stop an HGV over
12 months' old you have 18 documents to check. Now the average
PC is trained in that at training school, but he will shy away
from an HGV. He is not going to tackle that sort of thing, because
that driver knows precisely what documents he should have and
everything else. The PC would rather deal with a private car any
day. So, yes, you need a specialised force, they need special
training, closer links with the VI and working together. EU rules
say that 1 percent of vehicles should be checked annually.
482. How far are we from that?
(Mr Boyle) We check 1.5 percent. Germany check 4 percent.
So Germany checks three times as many vehicles as we do annually.
Our detection rates for the ones we do check, about 25 percent
have faults on them which would warrant a prohibition, one vehicle
in four. One vehicle in 10—or slightly more, one in eight
has drivers' errors for tachograph offences.
483. How are we doing on the changes to the
tachograph? Are we succeeding in getting the European Union, as
it is laughingly called, to undertake proper changes to the tachograph?
(Mr Boyle) They are currently looking at a new digital
tachograph. Everybody is worried about it; all you need is a Smart
Card and a person who knows electronics and it will be even better
because you do not have a paper record that you can actually look
at and look for faults. So they are very worried about this new
digital tachograph going out.
Chairman: Oh, so we are advancing as usual!
Mr Bennett?
Mr Bennett
484. On this spot check on vehicles, how much
is it really a spot check? I am aware in the North West of at
least three places which are designed for vehicles to be pulled
off the road. If I was driving a dodgy vehicle I would be very
reluctant to go past one of those checking spots.
(Mr Boyle) There are two things about this. The check
points are rarely used through lack of manpower, so your chances
of being caught are slim anyway. Secondly, as soon as the checkpoint
opens the old CB comes out and any dodgy driver is told several
miles away that the checks are on and he will not go past that
check point. He is going to go another way around. On the one
day a month the checkpoint is open he will take a two or three
mile diversion. The other 30 days in the month he will go past
the checkpoint that is not in use. So it is extremely difficult
to catch them and even with that difficulty they still manage
to pull 25 percent vehicles with faults on them.
Chairman
485. That is very interesting. Thank you very
much for that. May I just ask you what would be the effect of
the rail freight, road haulage industries of the higher rates
of grants proposed by the Rail Freight Group and supported by
Freight on Rail?
(Ms Linnett) Well, the intention of them was clearly
to go some way towards levelling the playing field and to make
it, I think, more accessible to smaller companies to actually
apply for freight grants because the environmental benefits would
be evaluated and be slightly greater. Therefore there would be
more schemes which would qualify in order to give more people
an opportunity usually to put in some sort of access to the rail
network. So I think the opportunity of increasing it would bring
smaller players to the table that are not there at the moment.
I also think on some key flows it would just make the difference
between the flow being viable and not being viable and therefore
getting that would encourage modal shift. I think particularly,
concentrating on intermodal, as I mentioned earlier about getting
the cost structures to be really competitive.
486. Do you think there is a gap that is not
covered by any type of grant?
(Ms Linnett) Yes, I think particularly on intermodal
traffic, and it is the same in continental Europe. It is not just
here. The actual economics, because it involves road collection
and road delivery and trans-shipment as well as the rail haulage
leg, it is very hard to make that competitive and I think if one
were to actually look at a way of being able to make that more
attractive because intermodal is very user friendly. An intermodal
unit goes into a customer on the back of a trailer and looks like
a lorry, so he does not feel he is making a really different change
of mode. He can load it in the same way as he normally loads it,
he can load it off the same loading bay, he can use the same fork
truck. It is not such a significant switch for him and therefore
it is a much easier way to shift traffic from road to rail, but
it is more difficult at the moment because of the cost structures
involved in it.
487. Mr Boyle?
(Mr Boyle) Yes, may I just say that the RDS has worked
out a method of getting round this problem. With the advent of
44 tonne lorries, the previous allowance of 44 tonne for intermodal
has gone. So what mechanism do we have to bring in now to cover
the cost of trans-shipment and quite simply we say that the tractor
units involved in intermodal work should be designated works trucks
under the legislation—the Con and Use regulations—there
is a thing called a works truck. It is taxed at about £150
a year, it is allowed to use gas oil and the cost of running that
truck comes down to such a level that if you set a maximum radius
of 80 kilometres from that depot, that truck can go and do a run
and it nicely saves £20 per trip, which is the cost of a
trans-shipment of a container. So you can use this particular
device to replace the 44 tonnes and it will benefit every intermodal
container. In the past you have only been able to benefit containers
over 38 tonnes gross. Anything lightweight did not get any benefit.
This method covers every container and I have a copy available
if you would like to have it.
488. If you would leave that with us, Mr Boyle.
You are doing very well then. Do you think that the road haulage
industry has taken considerable strides towards a better environmental
record?
(Ms Garnett) I think it has made some advances, but
it cannot beat rail at all on CO2 emissions which is arguably
the biggest killer of them all. Also, it should be said, that
the rail industry has invested heavily in greener locomotives
which meet EPA—Environmental Protection Agency—standards.
489. So what more ought the road haulage industry
be doing in order to improve both its image and the reality of
how it operates?
(Mr Boyle) It certainly has to go for the European
eco-friendly engines and the measure that the Commission for Integrated
Transport put in that 44 tonners must have those engines fitted.
That is an absolute must. I do not see that the Government should
allow them in without that. They have already been given grants
to use these sort of engines—£1,000 off the VED to
use that sort of engine, but just call me an old cynic but the
road haulage industry is dragged kicking and screaming to anything
that costs them a penny.
Chairman: That is very unusual for any kind
of British industry, Mr Boyle; you must be wrong. May I say to
you all that you have been very helpful and I think this has been
very, very useful indeed. Thank you very much for coming.
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