Industry News from Yes Insurance

Essex constabulary have been aided by Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) representatives embarking on a large scale crackdown to take dangerous lorry drivers off the roads.

The operation was carried out in various areas on the M11, A120 and A131 over three weeks in September.

In the short period, 167 offences were detected. Unfortunately, 50 were deemed so serious that they had to stop the lorry from being driven any further. These offences were either mechanical defects or due to the driver being on the road for too many hours.

One well known transport operator even tried to travel on Irish-registered plates without the authority of an operator licence. He was told to leave the UK immediately.

Road policing officer, Sgt Dave Rout, said that he believed the stop-checks were a useful way of "gathering intelligence and disrupting criminal activity" as well as ensuring the county's roads remain safe.

Many of these lorry drivers are foreign and claim they are forced to work over the time permitted in order to deliver their shipments on time.

On a recent BBC documentary on the subject, the Real Story team discovered that many of the drivers' tachographs (the discs which denote how many hours a driver has been on the road for) showed they had worked in excess of 24 hours.

A department for transport spokesman told the BBC: "Every day, VOSA officers take unsafe vehicles off our roads and when the Road Safety Bill becomes law they will be granted powers to collect penalties from non-UK drivers at the roadside."

Safer roads will result in less accidents which could lead to a drop in the cost of breakdown cover and cheaper car insurance.

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