RHA rejects Boris Johnson’s parting shot at haulage industry
The Road Haulage Association (@RHANews) notes with disappointment the public consultation from Transport for London (@TfL), proposing that lorries in the capital should be required to have additional glass fitted to the nearside door to improve the drivers vision. The proposal is an extension of TfLs Safer Lorry Scheme.
Commenting, RHA chief executive Richard Burnett (@RHARichardB) said: “We doubt if London has the power to impose such a requirement as EU law sets out the specification parameters for vehicles travelling across Europe.”
The design of lorry cabs is governed by EU-wide regulation and the vehicles are supplied by global manufacturers. TfL is, as the consultation makes clear, working with the European Commission and the UK government to improve the design of cabs in terms of visibility. The RHA supports efforts to find cost-effective measures to improve safety.
However, this consultation proposes imposing a costly retrofit requirement on thousands of operators, without any assessment of the total costs or benefits that it would expect to follow. TfL estimates costs of between £1,000 and £1,500 for those HGVs for which retrofitting is a practical option, which means a total cost running into tens of millions of pounds.
Concluding, Richard Burnett said: “We will be responding to the consultation in some detail. However this proposal, coming in the last days of Boris Johnson’s mayoral term, lacks any of the analysis expected from a responsible government and will be greeted with frustration and anger across the haulage industry.”
