News

Despite a recent survey revealing that operators have no faith in the ability of the police or Home Office to deal with lorry crimes, dedicated freight crime fighters insist the industry must work with them to ward off a likely rise in truck crime in the run up to Christmas.

Police have said they are disappointed but not surprised that 95% of respondents to the latest Commercial  Motor/Michelin business monitor do not feel the police or Home Office take truck crime seriously, but insist crime still needs to be reported.

Detective Constable Paul Lambotte, head of unit for the Association of Chief Police Officers' Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (AVCIS), the parent group of TruckPol, says it is highly concerning that of the 79.5% of truck crime victims who have reported an incident, 77.4% feel the police dealt with the situation badly.

"I am disappointed about the level of customer satisfaction - but we are trying out best within our current restricted resources." Although 39% of respondents have been victims in HGV crimes ranging from fuel siphoning to hijacks, 20.5% of them did not report the incident.

Dave Barlow, sales director of Willenhall, Wolverhampton-based  RK Transport, estimates it has had at least £100,000 of diesel stolen this year - and he is less than enthusiastic about the police response he has received: "The police said there are not enough PCs on the beat and they are too tied up with admin."

Inspector Simon Westwood of the Central Motorway Police Group says the Christmas period often sees an increase in attacks. To reassure the industry, a truck drivers' 'Stammtisch' (a German word meaning 'regular meeting') is being held every six weeks at the Hilton Park Services on the Staffordshire stretch of the M6 for drivers to voice their concerns.