The Road Haulage Association says the government should overhaul the licensing system by introducing formalised audits for all HGV operators.
RHA chief executive Richard Burnett says it has been 50 years since the O-licencing scheme was introduced, and despite its success, it needs refreshing to improve road safety.
“(Today) trucks are larger and heavier, operations are more demanding and expectations of competence and compliance with regulations are much higher than in the past. Mandatory auditing would flush out operators that should not have a licence. It would be a decisive step towards minimising road safety risks.”
Such a move would mean that those operators who work within the rules would no longer be in completion with less-scrupulous suppliers according to Burnett. He says that currently, we place more emphasis on those operators already working to high safety standards.
“The important issue for road safety – and fair competition - is to get to grips with those at the other end of the compliance spectrum. Auditing all operators achieves that, as well as validating the better firms,” concludes Burnett.