Inside the Member Advice Centre – your questions answered

A well-utilised service that has long been popular among members, the MAC is frequently named as a top benefit in membership surveys.

Founded in the late 1990s, the MAC was created in response to a need for a dedicated team of advisers to answer a rising volume of legal and compliance queries coming into the business group, which were growing in complexity. Today, the MAC handles more than 20,000 enquiries a year – three quarters by telephone and one quarter via email.

ANY QUESTIONS

Offering advice on anything that affects the compliance of members’ operations, the team has to field queries on a dizzying array of topics on a daily basis, from vehicle maintenance standards to being asked how to transport munitions, and of course everything in between.

Robert Saunders, the Manager of the Member Advice Centre, appreciates the high premium members place upon the service. “It’s massively important,” he said. “If you go to any industry event, you’ll find one of the first questions anyone looking to join will ask is: ‘Is there a legal or assistance helpline as part of this membership?’ It has long been crucial to Logistics UK and is even more so now.”

CAREER IN TRANSPORT

Saunders can confidently claim to have worked in the logistics industry man and boy, taking up a five-year apprenticeship to work on HGVs after leaving school, before working his way up in the haulage industry as first a technician and later a fleet engineer. In 1996, he joined what was then FTA as a vehicle inspector, but soon branched out within the role to include IRTEC assessments, end of lease inspections and Defra vehicle approval for livestock containers.

Following 18 years in the Vehicle Inspection Service, Saunders joined the MAC. “They needed an engineer to advise on those types of issues,” he said, “There was a role created as Manager of Engineering Information. So they took me off the road and in I went.”

In 2019, Saunders took on the day-to-day management of the entire MAC team.

SPECIALIST ADVICE

While each of the seven team members has a broad base of transport and compliance knowledge, they have their own specialisms too.

While Saunders’ own background is on the engineering side, his colleague Darren “Percy” Thrower is the ADR specialist and is now qualified for DGSA too. Ray Marshall deals with queries on international trade, and Tom Griffith specialises in passenger transport, drivers’ hours and the waste sector.

Dan Crutchington and Becky Martin are the two newest members of the team. Crutchington specialises in light commercial vehicles and small trailers, while Martin has a strong background in retail, international operations and animal transport.

The team also benefits from expert support from Logistics UK’s Head of Compliance Information, Ian Gallagher. For many years Gallagher worked in Logistics UK’s policy team, specialising in driver licensing and other DVLA-related issues, as well as being a main point of contact for members, he has accumulated a “massive amount of knowledge” according to Saunders.

‘BREAD AND BUTTER’ QUERIES RETURNING

The number of enquires received by the MAC via email has risen from fewer than one in six to one in four over the past four years.

“At the moment email enquiries are growing at quite a healthy rate,” Saunders said, “mainly owing to Brexit, COVID-19 and all the issues that surround these subjects.”

He is delighted to report, however, that having been inundated with questions on these two topics for the best part of a year, the MAC is now returning to something like normality.

“We’re getting a lot more bread and butter questions in now,” he said, “Even though Brexit isn’t settling down in the real world, it is settling down in the MAC a little now.”

A large volume of calls the MAC receives concern drivers’ hours rules, operator licensing and driver licensing. “They’re still coming through fast and furious from than angle,” Saunders said.

ON-THE-SPOT ADVICE

Members who call the MAC for advice on an issue often find that a single call to the MAC is all that is needed to provide the necessary information.

“Much of the time the advisers can answer members while they are on the phone, literally researching the answer while they’re on the phone,” Saunders said.

However, with all the changes to European haulage in recent months, both the calls and the emails have tended to require more in depth responses.

“Members find basic information out on the internet, but they come to us for the more detailed information,” Saunders said. “So we often have to go away and do our research before going back to them.”

USEFUL CONTACT BOOK

Over the years, the MAC has built up an enviable contact book with government departments and agencies like the Department for Transport, DVSA, DVLA and the Office of the Transport Commissioners.

“Over a period of time we’ve built up strong relationships with the various government agencies and departments,” Saunders said. “I have contacts I can use for getting feedback and the exact information straight away, which is accurate and reflects what’s actually happening.”

While the MAC tends to steer away from employment law, as it is such a specialist area, it often recommends specialist lawyers if there is a specific issue that needs answering on the employment side.

LEGAL MATTERS

While advisors in the MAC cannot represent members invited to a Public Inquiry, they will help them to plan and prepare without charge.

“We’ll help members with any form filling, we’ll help them prepare, we’ll advise as much as we can, as far as we can go,” Saunders said, “But we wouldn’t go there to represent them in person.”

The MAC does not just advise on primary legislation, it takes case law into account too.

“There may be occasions where we use primary legislation but then you need the case law to back it up as an example,” Saunders said. “We’ll use both, but it depends on the type of question that’s coming in and the information that’s required.

The MAC also advises on EU legislation, because while the UK is no longer an EU member state, it has adopted some of the EU legislation within its own regulations.

FUTURE CONCERNS

Saunders said his biggest concern for members at the moment is guiding them through two substantial issues: COVID-19 and Brexit.

“My main concern is the restrictions with regards to COVID and the issues that members have faced right the way down the line, whether it’s on operational issues or driving licences. Plus, with regards to Brexit, I am concerned about driver availability and possible issues with staff. So, there are two massive issues members need to grapple with at the moment.”

PANDEMIC CHALLENGE

When the COVID-19 pandemic started to affect the UK economy, the effect on Logistics UK members was dramatic, and the MAC had to cope with a sudden surge of enquiries.

“When the pandemic hit,” Saunders said, “it literally doubled our enquiries in one month. The calls and the emails appear to be a lot more detailed. Members have always needed detail but now they need a lot more. There are now massive changes that members have to deal with daily.”

The indirect consequences of the pandemic also need to be dealt with. For example, members often struggle to get their drivers’ medicals carried out, because a lot of doctors’ surgeries only offer phone appointments. Members have also encountered difficulties securing annual MOT tests for their HGVs.

“Logistics UK has done a lot of work with DVSA and DfT to get exemptions and relaxations put in place and fought quite hard on that side of it,” Saunders said.

KEEPING MEMBERS MOVING

By offering the advice needed to help members continue in their everyday tasks, the MAC helps members access the information they need regarding the wider industry.

When asked to summarise the MAC’s core purpose, Saunders said simply: “To assist members with keeping their transport operations moving, compliant and within the law”.

Logistics UK members can contact the MAC about legal and operational issues on 0370 605 0000 (9am-5pm weekdays).

*www.logistics.org.uk/mac

Published On: 11/02/2021 17:00:55

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