Hauliers 'are downsizing vehicles to avoid legislation'
Date: 24 January 2008
Many hauliers and other logistics companies are opting to downsize their vehicles to take advantage of less rigorous restrictions, but a freight haulage expert has now warned against this.
Speaking to roadtransport.com, the Road Haulage Association's (RHA) technical services manager, Steve Biddle, explained that a growing number of logistics operators are currently buying 3.5-tonne vans.
He said they were doing this to avoid legislation that affects larger freight haulage vehicles. This is because these vans fall outside of O-licence requirements, meaning that they can be driven by anyone and that they do not need speed limiters or tachographs.
Mr Biddle added that there was a concern that freight haulage professionals were being forced to work longer-than-legal hours in the smaller vans.
A recent study found that 70 per cent of vans checked on the roadside had serious problems, with overloading being the most common.
Mr Biddle explained to the site: "If an operator is found to be running overloaded, it won't be long until VOSA checks other vehicles in the fleet to see if it adopts the same slapdash principles to its truck fleet.
"Hauliers need to take better care in order to avoid the introduction of legislation and to protect their O-licences."
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