APPENDIX 3
Memorandum submitted by the Road Haulage
Association Ltd
INTRODUCTION
The Road Haulage Association (RHA) was formed
in 1945 to look after the interests of haulage contractors in
various areas of the country, in effect, amalgamating local organisations
that had already been established. The Association has subsequently
developed to become the primary trade association representing
the hire-or-reward sector of the road transport industry. There
are now some 10,000 companies in membership varying from major
companies with over 5,000 vehicles down to single vehicle owner-drivers.
BACKGROUND TO
THE INDUSTRY
The road haulage industry plays a pivotal role
in the UK economy carrying over 80% of all domestic freight. In
2003 this amounted to:
— 1,053 million tonnes carried by hire-or-reward
vehicles;
— 590 millions tonnes carried by own-account
operators" vehicles;
— a total of 1,643 million tonnes of
goods transported by road;
— 152 billion tonne kilometres on road
transport;
— an average length of haul of 46 kilometres
for rigid vehicles, 133 kilometres for articulated vehicles and
92 kilometres as an overall average.
There are approximately 52,000 businesses in
the industry and between them they operate some 430,000 vehicles
over 3.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight.
GENERAL COMMENTS
Security is a major concern to both the road
haulage industry and also to its customer base. In recent years
we have experienced a significant increase in the theft of vehicles
and/or loads by professional criminals engaged in organised crime.
Although the absence of any consistent approach to data collection
makes it difficult to quantify how much road freight crime costs
the United Kingdom each year, thefts recorded by Truck-Pol[1]
amounted to approximately £74 million in 2003/4 and had a
detrimental impact on over 3,500 jobs. This is a conservative
estimate, as over 55% of crime reports received by Truck-Pol do
not specify the load value. In addition to the value of stolen
loads millions of pounds worth of tax is lost to the Treasury
each year.
SPECIFIC TRANSPORT
SECURITY ISSUES
1. Terrorist threat
Recognising that the UK road freight sector
may be a possible target for terrorism, post 9/11, the Road Haulage
Association is involved in proposals to enhance and develop the
existing industry/police Truckwatch[2]
scheme. The aim is to ensure that a commercial vehicle and/or
its cargo will not be used as a weapon, or to facilitate the delivery
of such a weapon. The objective is to raise awareness of the true
level of terrorist threat in a controlled manner, by gathering
information and reporting to the appropriate authorities any intelligence
that is likely to be of benefit to government enforcement and
intelligence agencies in the fight against crime and terrorism,
and to reduce the vulnerability of the road freight sector to
criminality and terrorist attack, as well as any other security/criminal
incident. A request has been formally submitted to the Police
Information Technology Organisation (PITO) to provide an automated
facility to notify Truckwatch within minutes of a stolen report
being placed on the Police National Computer (PNC), but this has
not yet happened and together with the lack of funding for a project
manager the scheme has presently stalled.
2. I.D Cards
Drivers arriving and departing from ports of
entry are not presently checked to establish their identity. The
checks on identity relate solely to vehicles, container numbers
and the pin number (if the port employs that method). Most ports
operating pin number collections do not have an interface with
the driver, all transactions being completed by electronic means,
albeit the driver is being monitored and recorded on CCTV. It
is therefore impossible for the HGV driver's driving licence to
be used (for identity checks), as there is no person available
in the release and arrival process to check against the photograph
of the driver. What we believe is required is a quality method
of identifying a driver visiting a port, whether delivering or
collecting a container and leaving an audit trail that is difficult
to circumvent. An Entitlement Card with a bio-metric facility
incorporated into the card issued to the driver and a reader facility
at the port could provide an economic solution, but if the industry
is to accept this then a single card would need to be accepted
by all ports and other secure establishments.
3. Driver Security
The security problems facing road freight transport
go beyond the physical. Commercial vehicle drivers are also affected
by problems of lone working. A driver's truck cab is his office
and it is a legal requirement for employers to address commercial
vehicle driver safety in that workplace. Lone workers should not
be more at risk than other employees and, in the event that a
worker suffers an injury or mental and emotional distress through
the lack of provision of reasonable safety and security measures,
the employer may be held liable for damages in law.
Employees in professions traditionally thought
of as at risk are generally afforded excellent means of protection.
Specialist security van drivers for cash collection companies,
for example, are issued with protective clothing and reinforced
windows and doors. However, observers point to the lack of safety
provisions for general truck drivers who can unwittingly assume
the role of unpaid security guards. By the very nature of their
job, they are isolated and largely unprotected—sitting targets
for criminals when parked in secluded lay-bys or insecure and
poorly lit truck stops (see section 4 below).
Hijacks and attempted hijacks increased dramatically
in 2004, averaging seven per month and peaking at 15 in November
of that year. The level of violence also appears to be on the
increase, with drivers being assaulted and threatened with iron
bars, hammers, knives and firearms. The propensity of hijackers
to abduct the driver or security guard and detain them for several
hours to facilitate the theft also appears to be increasing.
4. Truck Parking
The current provision for lorry parking is declining
as many local authorities redevelop existing facilities for more
"profitable" purposes, such as housing and commercial
development. The problems currently being experienced are inhibiting
the efficient carriage of goods and increasing the risk of these
drivers being involved in an accident. The lack of secure facilities
also means that drivers and their loads are also at greater risk
of crime, as high value loads have often to be parked at the roadside
or in other unsuitable locations.
Although as a nation we are dependent on road
transport for moving goods and people around, there are no published
standards or guidance on what a truckstop facility should comprise
of, or what standards should be adopted for factors such as size,
layout, construction etc. The Road Haulage Association would like
to see government produce a Planning Policy Guidance Note to assist
planners on the need to provide facilities to enable this vital
activity. With the introduction of the Road Transport (WTD) Regulations
from 4 April 2005, as well as the anticipated changes in driving
hours regulations, the need for appropriate truck parking facilities
is only going to increase.
5. Smuggling
Another problem faced by the employers of vocational
commercial goods vehicle drivers is the constraints of the Data
Protection and Rehabilitation of Offenders Acts, with regard to
the ability to be able to carry out sufficient investigations
into a prospective employee's background before deciding whether
that person is of a satisfactory level of trustworthiness to be
allocated to a vehicle that may well have a value in excess of
£100,000 and could also be used for nefarious activities
without the owner's knowledge.
Although an employer may have carried out all
checks that are presently accepted and available before taking
on new staff there is still the possibility that someone employed
as a long distance lorry driver may carry out activities whilst
out on the road (eg smuggling) that lead to a company vehicle
being impounded and proceedings being taken against the employer,
with little likelihood of mitigating circumstances being taken
into account.
Following discussions with HMRC, the RHA provides
advice to its members on measures they should take to protect
themselves from the illegal actions of employees and to prove
to enforcement authorities that all reasonable steps have been
taken. However, until employers are able to conduct more through
checks on potential employees, these problems will continue to
arise.
6. EU Customs Code
With regard to security amendments to the Community
Customs Code (Rev 1 to European Council Regulation 2913/92 (TAXUD/1250/2005)),
which is the subject of a consultation process and covers trade
across EU borders, Customs will be able to offer operators the
status of Authorised Economic Operator (AEO), subject to the production
of satisfactory legal and solvency requirements, in three parts:
simplified procedures (1), security (2) or a combined recognition
(3). However, although the terms of the amendment are as yet undefined,
we believe that the proofs required would largely be those already
made available by operators when applying for a Commercial Goods
Vehicle Operator Licence. Therefore, we are unsure as to what
the benefits of this initiative would be, especially taking into
account the inevitable additional costs involved.
Although the scheme is voluntary, but not free
for the operator to administer, it is not clear why anyone should
want AEO status unless penalties are to be introduced for those
who do not take it up. There is the concern that, in the long
run, AEO status will become mandatory for all operators trading
across EU borders, thus reducing trade facilitation, competitiveness
and the Lisbon Agenda.
7. Information on Freight Movements
The Home Office has recently started a consultation
regarding Police access to information on all freight movements,
both inside the United Kingdom and presumably across the EU. The
only way for such access to be effective in a risk based security
regime is for the Police to receive notification of movements
from shippers and/or hauliers in advance, rather as Customs intends
with the Customs Code. However, the cost/manpower implications
of this have not, to our knowledge, been calculated. Put together
with the Customs Code amendments, both would seem to have an adverse
effect on EU trade and place significant additional burdens on
the haulage industry.
8. The Wider Cost of Crime
The road freight sector suffers heavily from
crime, which can have a crippling affect on business. This includes
increased insurance premiums; the cost of buying and/or hiring
replacement vehicles; failure to meet customer orders; loss of
revenue; stress on management and staff, sometimes involving crimes
of violence even redundancies and loss of business. Lorry and
load theft is never a victimless crime. Customers suffer and so
in turn does industry in general when these customers are lost.
Insurance premiums are based on claims experience. Whatever is
paid out in one year will be the basis for premiums for the following
year and so it goes on. There is a compelling economic need for
clearer public awareness of the true cost of this type of crime
and its links with other criminal activity.
Road freight theft has become a highly profitable
criminal enterprise with an average loss per incident of £32,125.
This has a significant impact on the UK economy, through direct
and indirect costs to business, as well as the effect on the way
the UK is perceived by multinational companies and by supplying
the grey economy with a ready supply of stolen goods. The criminal
profits can then be used to fund further serious and organised
crime.
Road freight crime needs to be moved up the
political agenda. Until lorry crime becomes a KPI for the relevant
authorities it is unlikely that the situation will improve. The
National Criminal Intelligence Service has been charged with producing
a "Baseline Assessment" for the Association of Chief
Police Officers on the subject of HGV and load theft.
It could only be a positive step for the Home
Office to recognise this type of crime as a specific offence,
which is quite distinct from the existing definition of "Theft
of or from a motor vehicle."
At present there is not a separate definition/code
available whereby the relevant authorities can record the involvement
of "organised crime" in commercial vehicle/load theft.
The Home Office has the ability to introduce a tick box on the
crime recording form for any offence that they believe warrants
attention. The addition of a new tick box would give an immediate
indication as to the size of reported organised crime in the UK.
CONCLUSION
In Britain today policing has become largely
localised, with autonomy and local objectives playing little part
in the wider picture. Currently resources do not exist for dealing
with middle of the road organised crime—too big for local
command units and too small for the National Crime Squad. There
is one exception in the UK haulage industry and that is Truck-Pol.
At present Transport Security is dealt with
by various departments and given varying degrees of importance.
For this issue to be addressed effectively, co-ordination and
information sharing between Government departments must be improved.
October 2005
1 Truckpol is a small team of police officers operating
under the umbrella of the Metropolitan Police Stolen Vehicle Squad
that collates and disseminates offences and intelligence regarding
HGV crime, funded entirely outside the force budget by the insurance
and haulage industries including the Road Haulage Association
and matched pound for pound by a Home Office grant. Back
2
Truckwatch is a voluntary and independently sponsored crime prevention
initiative run jointly by the Road Haulage Association, the Freight
Transport Association and presently operated through six of the
forty three Police authorities within England and Wales. Back
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