Euro 'wise men' support impounding
Page 6
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Truck impounding has been recommended in a report for the European Commission in a bid to deter illegal operators.
The report comes from a group of "wise men", advising the commission on European road transport harmonisation. It says impounding should be used only in cases of "serious infringement of regulations and particularly where this relates to safety and repeat offences". But the Road Haulage Association does not believe Britain would voluntarily adopt impounding last autumn Transport Secretary John MacGregor dismissed the idea.
The advisory group, which includes hauliers and trade union officials, also calls for: El The use of 44-tonne trucks on five axles; A standard entry level into the haulage industry for every country in the EU. The group says that Britain's entrance exam for transport managers, the Certificate of Professional Competence, only needs 65 hours' training, compared with 300 hours to train for the equivalent exam in the Netherlands.
Of the 2,060 Dutch hauliers who received Operator Licences between May 1992 and the end of 1993, more than 25% obtained their CPCs in the UK.