t's a small world, road transport. So when two directors
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of Roy Bowles Transport were successfully prosecuted for manslaughter last December, following a horrific accident on the M25 involving one of the company's vehicles which caused the death of two people, it should have sent a shiver down the spine of every manager in the business. But did it? The lesson was certainly there for anyone prepared to learn from it. But how many have?
Martin Carroll, boss of Saints Transport, insists he's got the message. "The Roy Bowles case made me check and look at ourselves again," he says, "and I saw areas that could be considered grey. You do rely on drivers' integrity and so now, under our system, any vehicle that goes out of the depot with a tachograph is logged, so we know exactly how many charts should be coming back—
because sometimes it can be missed and I didn't like that."
For Carroll, risk management isn't just about keeping track of what happens at the bottom of the company—it includes the top as well.
"Our managers and the people in transport operations have been reminded, and they've all had to sign an undertaking, that no drivers are allowed to do anything illegal, for any reason," he explains. "The responsibility for keeping legal is theirs. The drivers have also been told that they don't get paid for illegal hours—and if anyone suggests anything illegal they'll be reported to me or any other manager."
Although EU Drivers' Hours specifically forbid payments or bonuses to drivers based on the distance travelled or goods carried, it's a fair bet that some operators may be tempted to use pay to boost productivity unfairly. But 0 this is a practice Carroll rejects: "We reorganised the wage structure of the company so we pay everyone a fixed wage whether they work the hours or not. And they have to get overtime approved, but it's very rare. What's more, drivers start work at the time we ask them to come in. We've got a good basic of between o-95 a day job and finish. In air freight there's very little lifting— no handballing and they get a top truck."
Haulage sector
Ironically, the fact that Saints were engaged in the same haulage sector as the Bowles further focused Carroll's mind. "I'm fairly certain we are doing it right but I sat there and I was thinking 'What ifs'...we're running it right, but let's get it ro 1% right, not t00% but 101%. God forbid that anything ever does happen. But if it does I want to do it right. I don't want to be up in the Old Bailey for three weeks."
Like many other senior managers, Carroll also considered his own role as boss of a haulage company—and the prosecution path to the top: "It was the accident with the Roy Bowles truck that really made me think—I'm the chairman of the company. It's me that's going to get into trouble so I decided to put in more fail-safe systems. We just can't allow illegal actions. You can be investigated at anytime so you have to make sure any driver does it right. In fact, we didn't have a real problem with tachosthey were handled by one man who is a CPC holder and he's very professional. But we also use Tachodisc for chart analysis too."
Carroll is adamant: 'Saints Transport will not operate under any circumstance illegally One of the reasons is that the airport runs under very professional conditions and a lot of the business is with American companies and you've got to take them very seriously when it comes to delays. If we're waiting for a load and the flight is delayed the customer is informed. The driver may already have been waiting a long time but he won't go out unless we can still do it legally."
The risk of a corporate manslaughter charge is another reason why Saints' vein. des are also maintained under manufac hirers' R&M contracts. However, Carroll has little sympathy for those operators who have stepped over the line citing economic pressures as the reason.
"The thing that saddens me is that we don't have to have cowboys," he says. "The customers should not be trying to make the industry into a cut-throat business. I've taken the concrete decision to keep the best fleet. The average age of our fleet is two years old, and with tractors one year. If I was Secretary of State for Transport I'd be r00% for impounding. I'd insist there was a lot more enforcement activity for the industry. OK, everyone makes mistakes—but there are operators constantly getting GVgs. I just cannot believe how leniently they are dealt with at times."