Tim Ridyard, a partner in transport law firm Barker Gotelee, has summarised the provisions of the new Road Safety Act 2006 for us – see the full entry below.
Tim says “There is a lot in this new Act” and adds that “the introduction of the offence of death by careless driving should be of the utmost concern to professional drivers and operators as the courts regard this group as having a particular duty to take care when driving large goods or passenger vehicles”.

Mercedes-Benz has super-sized its Sprinter, giving the largest 3.5-tonner in the range a whopping great 17cu m load volume. But having just had one on test at Motor Transport I can’t help but wonder how good an idea this actually is.

Fresh legislation for digital tachographs and hazardous goods has reignited VOSA’s attention to detail. If you run 3.5 tonne vans with a tow bar then make sure you have the right license, qualifications and equipment…or suffer the consequences.
The raft of recent legislations concerning digital tachographs and hazardous goods introduced by the European Union has escaped most van operators.

I wonder how many operators of 7.5 tonners actually realise that they have a little over two weeks to limit their trucks to 56mph?
The new legislation, which comes into force on January 1, 2007, applies to almost every commercial vehicle above 3.5 tonnes that was registered between October 1, 2001 and December 31, 2004. At a rough estimate we are talking about 40,000 7.5-tonners and as many as 18,000 large vans. A year later the regulations will also be applied to those registered after December 31, 2004.
But should someone break the law and fail to limit their vehicles to 56mph, what will the punishment be? That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to discover for the past week, but VOSA is proving extremely unhelpful. All I have managed to find out is that a non-restricted vehicle will fail its MOT.

25 years after CB radio became legal in the UK, the need to licence sets has finally been removed. Ofcom, the regulatory body responsible, deregulated CB radio in the same changes that saw the use of approved (ie CE-marked) low-power FM transmitters legalised. These are used to transmit wireless signals from MP3 players and iPods to car radios. The new rules came into effect on 8 December 2006.

According to TV pub landlord Al Murray, if you have a country with too many rules, you call it Germany. Not all of the rules are that draconian though! Have you ever wondered why German manufacturers need to build special models for the UK, while their own have implausibly high design weights? A visit to Mercedes' construction vehicle demo site revealed the truth, with this picture of an Actros 4148 (41 tonne design GVW, 480 hp engine) giving a clue.

It is the title of the new Government document on the traffic commissioner system that is worrying. It is called “Strengthening local delivery- Modernising the traffic commissioner system.” In my view anything involving the Government and the words modernising is deeply worrying.
Curiously the document seems to be more about buses than trucks. It wants the Traffic commissioners to and its now Board to be national focus for complaints about the reliability and punctuality of local bus services and investigate and seek complaints.
That is fine but it sounds like a lot of extra work. My concern is that that the Commissioners will have to concentrate on buses and the haulage industry and there will be less time for the haulage industry. The Government says that the Commissioners role with the haulage industry will be at least maintained. My question is how is this to be achieved, given a big extra work load and emphasis on buses?

UK's truck driver are not too bad on overloading or speeding, according to new figures from the Department for Transport. And there is evidence of strong improvement.
See the, mostly, good news below

•Only 1 per cent of 3 axle rigid vehicles, 3 per cent of 4 axle rigid and 5 axle articulated and 4 per cent of 6 axle articulated HGVs exceeded the maximum limits by 4 tonnes or more. This suggests that the vast majority of HGVs on Great Britain’s roads are carrying loads that are not breaking weight limits.

•Very few rigid and articulated heavy goods vehicles exceeded the speed limit of 60 mph on motorways but the majority (over 79 per cent) exceeded the 50 mph limit on dual carriageways and nearly as many (75 per cent) exceeded the 40 mph limit on single carriageways.

• On 40 mph roads, 39 per cent of motorcycles exceeded the speed limit. The next highest group were light goods vehicles, 29 per cent.

•In 1996, 11 per cent of articulated HGVs exceed the speed limit of 60 mph on motorways. In 2006 this figure had fallen to just 2 per cent. However over the same period, the proportion of articulated HGVs exceeding the speed limit (40 mph) on single carriageway non-built-up roads has increased from 72 to 76 per cent.

• Sixty one per cent of 2-axle rigid HGVs were travelling faster than the limit on 30 mph roads in 1996 and this number fell to 46 per cent in 2006. On 40 mph roads however, the proportion of speeding vehicles increased from 16 to 24 per cent over the same period.

One truck driver in six is now aged over 55, Skills for Logistics has disclosed.The problem is that new people are not joining the industry. Less than a tenth of vacancies are being replaced by new drivers.
But what Skills for Logistics does not mention is the new compulsory driver training directive, which comes into force in two years time. This will dramatically increase the training needed to become a truck driver, including quite academic tests.
Skills for Logistics is keen on the directive but the cost of training will increase and many potential drivers will be put off. It is likely to make the driver shortage even worse.

To find out about the Driver Training Directive, attend the Motor Transport conference on November 7 visit http://www.mtconferences.co.uk

You should be, because the latest measures from the Road Safety Act 2006 (coming into force today) could have some pretty frightening consequences for your driving licence: six points for a speeding offence, for example.

Leading transport lawyer Tim Ridyard (of Barker Gotelee solicitors) says, "The increase from 3 to 6 points for this offence is awful and will lead to some very harsh treatment of some drivers," and goes through the new Road Safety Act 2006 rules in some detail on the Transport Law Blog.

Be afraid - be very afraid...

Truck drivers have blockaded roads to ports, ferries and a major bridge. But this protest in Denmark is not about fuel but about the new drives’ hours regulations. This must be the first time a truck blockade has been about European regulations rather than issues closer to home such as the price of fuel and fuel tax.
The Danish obviously feel strongly about it. Bocking the ferry points and the bridge between Denmark and Sweden as well as other ferry terminals, is a very serious move. The International Herald Tribune reports that scuffles broke out between the Danish and foreign drivers.
According to reports, the drivers are protesting about bureaucratic rules on maximum working periods and minimum rest periods. The protesters want the drivers’ hours rules relaxed because they claim the rules hit small operators unfairly and do not improve safety.
This is certainly an interesting development and maybe protests against European regulations might increase in future.
One flashpoint may be over the Working Time Directive covering the transport industry. The EU has to investigate next year the exemption given to owner-drivers from the Directive.
It is absurd that owner drivers should be exempt from safety rules. But expect big protests in southern Europe when the EU decides to include owner-drivers in the rules
It is also worth noting that it is report that scuffles broke out between Danish and foreign drivers. This may reflect tension between the two groups. That tension also exists here.

See also report from Swedish newspaper in English