HSE to get RHA list?
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• Plans by the Health and Safety Executive to maintain a national computerised list of haulage companies which have been convicted of traffic infringements received an unexpected boost at Tankcon in Blackpool last week, when it was suggested the RHA's membership list should be made available to the HSE.
Mike Sewell, deputy chief inspector of explosives at the HSE, says there are plans to draw up national dossiers of hauliers with bad records using information from traffic examiners and police forces. These will be used to monitor the performance of companies in different areas of the country, and will be regularly checked in an attempt to standardise enforcement levels.
All the information will be held at the HSE's national office, and police forces around the country will be warned to watch out for companies with particularly poor records.
The announcement has received an immediate and positive response from Richard Hawkins, Chairman of the RHA's Environment and Waste Management working group.
Hawkins says the HSE should be given a list of all RHA members so that the association can be alerted if a member falls foul of the law. This should help to strengthen the association's professional image, says Hawkins, and would also encourage compliance with its code of practice.
RHA director general, Freddie Plaskett, was rather more cautious: "That (proposal) would really be up to the membership to decide. I expect someone in the tanker group will propose the measure to the executive board for consideration," said Plaskett. "The association as a whole will decide." He admits that any move to present a list of members to the HSE would be a "fairly major step".