 Another wake-up call for individuals and organisations to create and manage safe working environments as tougher sentences are announced, says Tim Ridyard
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 Tim Ridyard covers one of the topics discussed at the recent FM17 fleet management conferences by addressing issues surrounding Operator Licensing...
 Tim Ridyard examines DfT’s recent announcement that changes to driver licensing will allow people to drive heavier vans if powered by low emission technology...
 Colin Makin, employment law specialist at Ashtons Legal, explains more about considerations for fleets when it comes to the employment status of drivers following recent high-profile cases in the news...
Tim Ridyard explores the importance of getting timely advice and making the right early decisions if
enforcement agencies investigate your business. Whilst there has been something of a decline in the number of criminal investigations and court prosecutions in recent years (due to alternative disposals such as fixed penalties and improvement notices) businesses and organisations are still subject to criminal court proceedings were the penalties imposed are now extremely high, in particular for health and safety and environmental offences. Tim Ridyard takes a look at various legal scenarios relating to the introduction of driver assisted /automated vehicles
As advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and automated vehicle technologies (ADT) develop so must regulation be kept up-to-date to ensure there can be safe implementation and there are established legal parameters. Nick Sayer, Senior Associate Solicitor at Woodfines, highlights the recommendations made following the Glasgow bin lorry collision inquiry that can be applied to HGV fleets and drivers across the public sector.
A House of Commons Transport Committee Inquiry that started in October 2015 has been considering the current picture of road traffic law enforcement and has made some interesting conclusions and recommendations.
One part of the report describes how the number of traffic police officers has fallen dramatically whilst at the same time the number of road traffic offences detected has dropped. The latter might suggest that a reduced level in actual offending: in 2004 the total number of motoring offences was about 4.3M whereas it was about 1.5M in 2014. This might infer huge progress but the earlier figures include a huge number of parking fines no longer dealt with by police and other factors. Also, even though the number of drink-drive offences has halved there has not been a corresponding fall in the number of offences where death is caused. In 2004 there were 304 ‘causing death’ offences recorded – in 2014 the figure was 311. Tim Ridyard highlights a number of legal developments and new publications relevant to the industry The DVSA has produced a new version of Drivers’ hours and tachograph rules: Goods Vehicles (GV262) last revised in 2011. There is also a version for the passenger sector. Currently it is only available on line at www.gov.uk/guidance/drivers-hours-goods-vehicles. A hard copy is to be published, however, and operators, transport managers and drivers would do well to visit this new publication.
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