8/14/2019 download 01-04-08 dft road policing

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BY DANIEL ATTWOOD

The Department for Transport

(DfT) will be forced to pay police

to enforce traffic laws on sections

of the motorway network.

The DfT has confirmed that it

will have to meet the cost of addi-

tional policing needed for new

managed motorways motor-

ways with hard shoulder running,

tolled lanes and high occupancy

vehicle (HOV) lanes.

During a recent pilot scheme

on the M42, when the hard shoul-

der was opened to traffic at peak

times, the DfT had to negotiate a

77,000 enforcement agreement

with West Midlands Police.

Now the department is in nego-

tiations over how much it will

have to pay the police to enforce

the law on the extension of the

managed motorway scheme near

Birmingham.

A DfT spokesman said he could

not confirm how much of the

DfTs budget would be spent

paying the police.

However, with plans for

managed motorways to be estab-

lished on stretches of the M1, M6,

M62, M27, M4, M5 and radial

routes around the M25 by 2014, a

substantial amount of the DfTs

budget will eventually be diverted

to pay the police.

This departure from accepted

protocol is the result of the Asso-

ciation of Chief Police Officers

(ACPO) digging in its heels and

saying its forces would not release

any extra funds to police the new

motorway systems.

ACPO was clear that any addi-

tional enforcement requirement

should be cost-neutral to the

police, said a DfT spokesman.

The police have different priori-

ties and so we will have to pay.

The DfT will also have to pay

for a planned network of average

speed cameras.

Hydrogen vansITM Power and Roush

Technologies have signed a

co-operative agreement that

could see CO2-free, hydro-

gen-fuelled commercial

vehicles being marketed in

Britain within months.

ATS contract win

ATS Euromaster has

been awarded preferred

supplier status in a new

two-year agreement with

Leasedrive Velo. It will

provide fast-fit and tyre

services, including

puncture repairs and

wheel alignment.

French sparkVenturi Automobiles and

PSA Peugeot Citron havejoined forces to supply

electric vans based on the

Citron Berlingo First/

Peugeot Partner Origin in

response to a tender from

the French Post Office, La

Poste. The vans will be

tested with an entirely new

power train which makes it

possible to fit the electric

motor, battery and other EV

components inside the

vans engine compartment.

IN BRIEF

www.fleetnews.co.uk 03.04.08 7

daniel.attwood@emap.com

DfT to pay for

M-way policing

The Government has abandonedplans to introduce a high occu-

pancy vehicle (HOV) lane on the

M1. The news comes just days

after the minister for transport,

Ruth Kelly, opened a similar lane

on the M606 and M62.

The HOV on the M1 was

supposed to have been in opera-

tion between junctions seven and

10, between St Albans and Luton.

However, the plans were

announced by the Government

before investigations into its

viability were completed.

Now it has been found that theHOV lane could not be located in

the inside lane because that would

create problems for non-HOV

traffic leaving or joining the

motorway.

There is no indication that the

decision has anything to do with

the revelation that the Depart-

ment for Transport (DfT) will

have to pay for all additional costs

needed to pay to police the new

HOV lane (see story above).

The DfT said the investigation

highlighted the possibility of an

increase in accidents due to therisk of vehicles undertaking.

However, in its report

Advanced motorway signalling

and traffic management feasibility

study the DfT said: There is

currently no viable camera that

allows for remote or automated

enforcement of vehicle occu-

pancy, so enforcement relies on

police presence. Location of the

HOV in the outside lane would

make enforcement more difficult,

because of the speed of the traffic,

and the absence of refuge areas

or suitable locations for pullingvehicles over.

Police pulling over non-compli-

ant vehicles could also introduce

additional safety risks.

For these reasons we do not

consider that the proposal devel-

oped for the M1 is the right solu-

tion for this location, and that

there are likely to be limited

opportunities for successful

outside lane HOV lanes, at least

until camera technology can be

developed to support compli-

ance.

Car rentalterms getlongerVehicle rentals from franchise

car dealers are being extendedfor increasingly longer periods.

It has been a general trend

across the short-term car and

van hire sector that rentals are

getting longer, but dealer-based

rental seems to be doing even

better than the norm, Network

Automotive managing director

Colin Bruder said.

Our belief is that this trend is

being powered by dealers getting

better at marketing their car and

van hire operations to busi-

nesses, resulting in them winning

more deals for longer term

rental.

More fleet managers are

tending to hire vehicles for

periods up to six months to cover

fixed-term contracts or a new

employees trial period, said Mr

Bruder.

This means they are not

committed to a three-year lease

car if the relationship does not

work out on either side.

M1 high-occupancy lane plan dropped

Extra traffic police are needed

for new managed motorways