Fearing the usual flow of cases might ease to a trickle more transport solicitors are advocating greater deterrents for erring truck drivers to improve compliance. Warren, we’ll call him Warren for the sake of argument, increased his pace in the last couple of yards before launching into Ruben (we’ll call him Ruben for the sake of argument) with his studs showing. He missed the ball by several yards, clipped the air-born leg not the standing one, and turned poor Ruben inside out and upside down. Warren got up and chased after the ball as if nothing had happened.
The sparse crowd erupted. Threats were hurled. A can too. The referee ran over to assess Ruben, who was more shaken than hurt. Then he called Warren over. He took him aside to point out in no uncertain terms that if he ever did something like this again he’d be off. Out came the yellow card. Warren’s club has worked hard to create a friendly atmosphere (I love a party with a friendly atmosphere). Various committee members mingling with the crowd – at this level of football corporate hospitality is getting someone else to pay for the cups of tea and Pukka pies – said they would not tolerate this kind of behaviour as they brushed crumbs off their jackets. Effective policing relies on penalising those who commit the crime. It works in all walks of life from theft to fraud to wiping out an opponent near the halfway line. In road transport it’s slightly different. Often any criminal act starts the process of establishing whether or not there is a conspiracy to break the law. If a driver is caught fiddling the tachograph Traffic Commissioners, Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) and the police follow the paper trail to see if transport managers, directors and/or bosses are culpable. In each magazine produced by the good and the great of Her Majesty’s Road Transport Press Corp. there is many a story regards a hapless driver(s) and associated line-manager(s) plus the curtailment of an operator license, all in one story. There is an argument doing the rounds by several transport solicitors that tougher sentences aimed at drivers might just improve compliance. No self-respecting trucker wants to lose their license. Aforementioned transport solicitors believe that the greatest deterrent is the fear of being caught. Yes, to a point. New draconian measures introduced for using a mobile phone while driving is welcomed but with little to no increase in actual policing it’s a crime that is still endemic and showing no signs of abating. Tougher laws for truckers who break drivers’ hour rules are, again, welcomed but, again, who is to police it? Occasionally DVSA set up camp at one of its designated sites and gets great play from a targeted action that ends with 40 drivers receiving an array of fines for an array of misdemeanours. The numbers sound great, 40, woohoo. Whoopy-do more like. The truth as to why so many got caught is not the fear of getting caught but that they don’t expect to get caught. In 18 months of passing the DVSA site between Carlisle and Gretna on the M6 four times each week it was open 11 times. I know this because I wrote it down. Of the 11 times it was open and accepting credit cards I was pulled in exactly zero times. I had known drivers skirt around that section of the motorway by leaving at J44 up, past Hespin Wood and into Gretna fearing the site might be open but with it closed more often than not now they rarely bother to go around the houses. Getting caught is an occupational hazard; much like setting about the unfinished Shepherd’s Pie from the fridge at midnight only for the missus to emerge from the pantry with a torch and a face like thunder. DVSA needs to catch people breaking the law not stumble across it by chance when checking tyre depths during a routine wave in on the motorway once in a Blue Moon (I saw you standing alone…). Warren wiped out Ruben. The referee warned him. Warren toed the line. However, the referees’ threat of sending Warren off did not change the way his manager managed. The referee and manager ‘discussed’ the incident at length. The manager’s approach to the global game remains resolute. The same goes for truck drivers. They do the job to the best of their abilities and from time to time fall foul of the law. DVSA officers tend to take the view that a one off is just that, and based on its severity will depend on whether you are fined or not. More than once you fall into the ‘serial offender’ category and it might get referred upstairs. Unlike stanch football managers who back any miscreant publicly transport managers will presume you’re guilty unless proven innocent. They’ll cite the piece of paperwork you signed when you joined the mighty blue chip logistic giant that says “we, the transport company, told you not to do that, ever”. Increasing deterrents for truck drivers means they'll be getting it in both ears. No surprise there then.
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AuthorAging proletariat with face, teeth and body to prove it. Archives
August 2021
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