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THE GREAT
Page 54
Page 55
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D± VIDE There appear to be few subjects within freight haulage that arouse such strongly contrasting opinions as trailer registration.
On the surface,the argument for keeping a national database of all trailer number plate registrations does not seem particularly controversial. According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). there are approximately 250,000 trailers in the UK, and any system that reduces crime and the amount of time police spend tracing stolen vehicles can only be a good thing.
An SMMT spokesman says:" In theft terms, there's a problem no question of it. It's very difficult to identify a trailer quickly and sensibly. Many trailers have 17-digit Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs). If that's the only way of identifying a trailer, it can be ground off. And on a wet Friday night on the M62. how are you going to find that number?"
But this view doesn't take into account fears over the cost of administrating the system.
The Freight Transport Association (FTA) is vehemently against it, not least because it views trailer registration as just another tax on the industry. A i..30 annual fee to register a trailer is not much, but a major logistics company running 1.000 trailers would face a bill large enough to dent its profits.
The ETA also questions the effectiveness of such a plan. Regional policy manager Gavin Scott says: "If putting a registration number on a car doesn't stop it being stolen, how is putting one on a trailer going to stop it?"
Scott says that a few years ago he was involved in a "farcical" meeting with the Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (Vosa) and the Department for Transport (DfT) to discuss the issue. He raised the point that criminals wanting to steal a trailer are not going to be put off by a registration plate; the first thing they would do is use false plates."Their response was,'but that would he illegal'!"
Scott goes as far as saying that a small annual fee is not necessarily the primary concern among operators; it's the simple fact that "registration marks don't work".
"As an industry, we and the RHA (Road Haulage Association) said that we would be happy about the concept of visible VINs, but registration documents and plates would do nothing to help vehicle security. If I'm a terrorist, the first thing I'm going to do is take the thing off completely, or put false plates on.
"I don't think it's going to make it very hard at all. Criminals are more cunning.
The FTA is highly wary of the subject, and Scott gives the impression that the association is relieved that it seems to have fallen off the government's agenda for the time being. Others are not so convinced.
According to Len Fuller, boss of Andover Trailers and chairman of the Commercial Trailer Association: "Trailer registration will come whether anyone likes it or not. Pretty well every country in Europe has it and the way [these] things go, countries follow like lemmings."
Fuller says trailer registration makes sense because it would provide a level playing field for all operators:There are often problems when trailers pass out of the UK and documentation must besought. European countries are anxious not to have trailers "dumped" within their borders, so a country that doesn't possess a suitable database could be viewed with a degree of suspicion.
Proponents of trailer registration all say they sympathise with the critics' concern over added costs, and Fuller is no different. However, he argues that critics are not taking into account the overall financial advantage to the industry. "There's a benefit, because registration does speed up the process of finding owners," he says, pointing out that this alone should counter the'why bother?' argument put forward by detractors. "Insurance companies would give some credence to that, and perhaps help them to control their premiums and largely offset the costs."
But he does accept that the system could still leave annual fees exposed to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's whim.
Administrative bodies
Any debate about trailer registration must consider who would administer the database. Fuller says that Vosa is often suggested, because it already has an identification system in place. However, choosing his words carefully, he adds: "There are weaknesses [with Vosa's system] that need Lobe tightened for the purposes of type approval.The system of identity control at Vosa is not good enough to trace historical information." Instead, he favours the DVLA administering the database. In 2012, Whole Vehicle Type Approval (WVTA) will bring trailer bodies within the type approval net and the SMMT claims that this cannot be rolled out without the simultaneous introduction of trailer registration (CM 23 February). A DfT spokesman says it is now exploring the design of national approval schemes as an alternative toWVIA. As new goods vehicles and trailers will in future be allowed to enter into service only with a valid approval certificate, he confirms that a "small study" is currently underway to assess how this might be done for trailers.
The spokesman adds: "The study is being carried out by independent transport consultants in close liaison with industry.At the moment, nothing is decided;the purpose of the study is to explore the options for checking trailer approval certificates, and to make recommendations."
This would suggest that the official registration of trailers in some form is on the cards and will he introduced within the next six years. Fuller concludes: "The trailer industry is quite happy with trailer registration: to help in trading, to help in identification, to help in tracing and ensure they are given adequate testing. It [will provide the] basis for a history of each vehicle, how it might be modified, previous owners and so on.•