Spotlight on a Policy Manager – engineering change in logistics

I represent road members in everything engineering related, including roadside and MOT legislation – or anything involving a hammer, spanner or screwdriver! I liaise with government bodies and agencies, such as Department for Transport (DfT), Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and Vehicle Certification Agency, on changes to legislation.

Most of my time is spent on understanding the issues, challenges and aspirations of our members and either influencing future, or changing current legislation or policies, for the better.

One of the hot topics right now is the Guide to maintaining roadworthiness, which is considered by most as the bible for heavy goods vehicle (HGV) maintenance arrangements. This is currently being updated, and I am working with DVSA to make sure that any changes are workable and practical for our members. While DVSA had hoped to launch it earlier this year, this has been delayed due to the number of challenges we had made.

One fundamental change to the guide is the inclusion of lighter goods vehicles – vans over 2.5t – on international journeys, which have to have an operator licence. These are regulated by the Traffic Commissioner. It is important to remember that they do not regulate domestic journeys, so the guide needs to maintain the segregation between what a Traffic Commissioner can and can’t regulate, particularly as this guide is treated as legislation and there is an expectation by regulators that operators will follow it.

I am meeting with DVSA later this month to work through the details based on member feedback, and hope this guide can be published shortly.

This isn’t the only guide that is treated as legislation. The Load security guide, owned by DVSA and Health & Safety Executive (HSE), gives guidance on how to manage secure loads but can be quoted by HSE in prosecutions where operators aren’t following the guidance. This is why I am so enthusiastic about the use of ‘must’ and ‘should’ and work so hard with members to make sure the wording is right.

As well as influencing guidance documents, there are two other big campaigns right now. The first is preparing for vehicle autonomy. While autonomous vehicles (ie driverless) are some years away, the modern vehicles we have already include Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), such as automatic lane keep assist and emergency braking. Workshop staff need to be prepared for the new world, engineers need to understand what skills they need, now and in the future, and how their workshops need to adapt to meet the needs of these vehicles. This, of course also includes preparing for vehicles running on alternative fuels. The industry has run on diesel for years and some alternatively fuelled propulsion systems are a completely different breed of vehicle. I run the annual Fleet Engineer conference where we discuss these challenges and help identify options and opportunities to prepare for these changes.

My other passion is working with industry to remain or become more compliant. I’m keen for us to be able to self-regulate, and I know that our members want to do the right thing. Identifying shortfalls and what we can do better enables us to find solutions. For example, tyre conditions are the number one MOT failure for trucks. Why do they fail? Is it a lack of understanding? Getting to the bottom of issues such as these and identifying positive changes that can be made helps our members to remedy shortcomings and improve road safety.

I believe that being more proactive allows government to be confident we are working within the spirit of legislation and hence doesn’t feel the need to impose onerous legislation upon us – which can be time consuming. But to achieve this we have to be more vocal about what we are doing and what we are trying to achieve to policy makers.

Through Logistics UK’s four engineering forums – Scotland, Northern, Midlands and Southern – I discuss with members the challenges they face, and we collectively define actions. To be part of the forums, members need to have an engineering background as well as have a managerial or influential position in their company. My ask of forum members is that if we agree to a change, they take this forward and make it happen in their own business to bring about genuine improvements.

One other area that I want to mention is DVSA’s 'State of the nation' data for fleet compliance. I have been doing some analysis of the data and extrapolating the outcomes for different industry segments, which gives a clearer picture, rather than looking at the industry as a whole. Logistics UK’s challenge to DVSA is that it needs to be doing more of this for different segments of our industry to segregate those that are, or are trying, to be compliant, from those that are not. Those ignoring laws can undercut prices of those who are doing the right thing which puts good companies out of business. There are elements of the industry that deserve credit for their good work, and as a regulator, DVSA needs to be seen to be doing more to target those who are not compliant.

The work we do in Logistics UK is all about adding value for members. I encourage members to make use of our Member Advice Centre and also attend our compliance webinars. These bring our guidance documents to life and help members to understand the rules more clearly and/or provide them with the information that they need to know. These webinars are free and always generate ideas for how you can improve your business. Visit www.logistics.org.uk/memberbriefings23 for details of upcoming webinars.

I personally love the engineering side of logistics. I am all for positive change, but not for change’s sake. If I can help members make even a small improvement, then this is better than staying where we were. So together, let’s keep trying to make things better. 

*www.logistics.org.uk/campaigns

Published On: 15/12/2022 16:00:08

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