A scheme to beat truck crime by identifying secure and comfortable truckstops across Europe aims to accredit 80 sites in 10 countries by June 2010.
Freight crime intelligence unit TruckPol, a division of the Association of Chief Police Officers Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (AVCIS), says that in February, HGVs to the value of £954,000 were stolen - as were loads
to the value of £1,056,000.
In a bid to curb financial loss and improve driver safety, the European Commission (EC) is backing an accreditation process for truckstops. Secured European Truck Parking Operational Services (SETPOS), an organisation with 38 industry partners including the Road Haulage Association, believes drivers will benefit from safe rest areas and truckstops will attract more customers on if they are accredited with a 'blue flag' as part of the process known as Label.
Label has received half its €2.7m (£2.4m) budget from the EC and the rest from 41 partners, it revealed at an EC-sponsored Brussels conference. The scheme follows an EC report, Organised Theft of Commercial Vehicles and Their Loads in the
European Union, showing that 60% of attacks on lorries take place in service areas with crime affecting 90,000 drivers a year.
Truckstops will be awarded Label points under five headings:
"We aim to build a certification process that is fair and acceptable to truck park operators," says Silvia Bader, project manager business development of German certification specialist Dekra, which is handling the applications.
The first SETPOS initiative was a 2008 pilot project supported by Danish MEP Anne Jensen and Dutch MEP Corien Wortmann-Kool from the European Parliament's Transport and Tourism Committee. They successfully lobbied for €5.2m from the EC to open five secure truckstops across Europe with matched funding from the private sector.
The five are:
Ashford used its funding to upgrade security, including new CCTV systems to aid its security staff. "It's very important that transport users are prepared to pay for secure areas," says Jensen, who became involved after Danish transport unions alerted her to the dangers drivers face.
The Department for Transport (DfT) is keen that UK truckstop operators become involved. "This is an excellent opportunity," says David Glinos, the DfT's head of road haulage employment team, freight and logistics division.
A website linked to SETPOS, TRUCKinform, enables drivers to book parking spaces in advance, claiming links to 2,500 parking areas in 40 countries.
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