Both new applicants and existing operators will be required to demonstrate £7,950 (previously £7,850) for the first HGV and £4,400 (previously £4,350) for each additional vehicle they wish to be added to their O-licence.

The financial standing requirement for restricted O-licence holders will remain the same at £3,100 for the first vehicle and £1,700 for each additional vehicle.

Operators making applications to vary their O-licences will be required to produce evidence of meeting the revised criteria for their existing fleet as well as any additional vehicles. Those that appear at a public inquiry in front of the traffic commissioner will also need to demonstrate the required funds.

The level of finance operators are expected to demonstrate in order to gain a standard O-licence is set in EU law at €9,000 for the first vehicle and €5,000 for each additional vehicle.

The FTA earlier this year called for the government to consider setting its own rate of financial standing in pounds rather than euros post-Brexit.

The post Financial standing rate for standard O-licence holders to increase in 2018 appeared first on Motor Transport.

It will continue to provide warehousing, store delivery, e-fulfilment and returns management to the company until September 2023.

Steve Parkin, executive chairman of Clipper, said: “Superdry has been a key client of ours for five years, and we are delighted that our long-term relationship will continue.”

Superdry’s head of logistics, Gordon Knox, said: “For the last five years Clipper has worked closely with the team at Superdry to provide a first-class service to our iconic and dynamic business, maximising service delivery at optimum cost.

“We look forward to continuing to work with Clipper to ensure that our logistics infrastructure supports our ambitious plans, through continual evolution of systems and processes.”

Clipper Logistics’ turnover last year grew 17.2% to £340m, up from £290m in 2016.

The post Clipper Logistics has Supergroup contract extended by five years appeared first on Motor Transport.

John Wallace was jet washing a twin-deck recovery vehicle at the company’s site in Hayes,  Middlesex in May 2013 when the upper deck collapsed, trapping him.

Winchester-based J&J Conversions, which manufactured the vehicle recovery equipment, was also prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), as the equipment was found to have been poorly designed.

The HSE found that the upper deck was only stable in its raised position if secured by two powered locking pins, and if another device intended to detect the position of the upper deck was incorrectly operated by hand, it was impossible to lower the locking pins into place.

It said J&J Conversions should have used a device that could not be operated by hand to detect the position of the upper deck. It also failed to take appropriate measures to fix the problem on another occasion when the upper deck collapsed when the vehicle was owned by another operator.

The HSE claimed that a limited number of Ontime Automotive employees knew how to operate the device.

Ontime Automotive, based in Waterside Drive, Langley, pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 at Southwark Crown Court earlier this month and was fined £50,000 with £50,000 in costs.

J&J Conversions, of St Peter Street, Winchester, also pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety regulations. It was fined £100,000 and must pay £9,490 in costs.

HSE inspector Stephen Kirton said: “This was a tragic and wholly avoidable incident caused by poor design and the failure to control unsafe practices.”

The post Ontime Automotive fined after worker crushed by vehicle transporter deck appeared first on Motor Transport.

Agency driver Richard Bowen was crushed to death by a forklift truck that overturned whilst lifting kitchen worktops from a trailer at the firm’s Workington, Cumbria, site on 10 November 2014.

An investigation by the HSE found that that the forklift truck had been overloaded. Visiting HGV drivers were also not kept at a safe distance from loading and unloading operations, which put them at risk.

HSE inspector Steven Boyd said: “Standing too close to where loading or unloading work is being carried out can put people in harm’s way so people, such as delivery drivers, should be in a position of safety when forklift trucks are operating.

“This tragic incident could have been avoided if Howdens Joinery had implemented a safe procedure to ensure that pedestrians were kept at a safe distance during loading and unloading work.

The own-account operator, which holds two O-licences authorising up to 165 vehicles and 688 trailers, pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 at Carlisle Crown Court on 22 November.

As well as the £1.2m fine, Howdens Joinery will have to pay £33,902 in costs.

The post Howdens Joinery fined £1.2m after HGV driver death appeared first on Motor Transport.

According to parent company Dart Group’s interim results, the food distribution business saw turnover rise 4% to £83m in the six months to 30 September 2017 (2016: £80m), also helped by increased volumes at its Teynham and Heywood sites.

Operating profit only marginally increased to £2.4m from £2.3m during the same reporting period last year, which it said could be attributed to a lower contribution from its fruit ripening and packing operation.

Pre-tax profit, however, increased slightly from £1.9m to £2m.

The operator saw a 9% increase in fleet mileage to 23.9m during the six-month period. The number of tractor units in operation jumped from 440 to 499, and the number of trailers increased from  662 to 731.

The post Dairy Crest transport contract helps Fowler Welch half-year turnover grow appeared first on Motor Transport.

The TCs said brake defects and shortcomings in brake maintenance procedures are appearing “far too frequently” at public inquiries, with some operators failing to carry out testing at the required frequency, or at all.

According to the DVSA, more than one in 10 UK- and overseas-registered HGVs stopped by its enforcement staff attracts a prohibition for a defect of some sort.  Its fleet compliance check survey for 2016/17, which looks at a random sample of in excess of 6,000 vehicles, showed that brake defects represented 28% of the mechanical defects identified in UK-registered HGVs; 44% in UK trailers; 33% in non UK-registered HGVs and 42% in non-UK registered trailers.

The prohibition rate for overseas-registered HGVs was 12.5% last year, compared to 11% for UK-registered trucks. Some 18.3% of non-UK trailers checked attracted a prohibition, compared to 11.7% of trailers pulled by UK-based businesses.

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DVSA chief executive Gareth Llewellyn said: “Brakes that don’t work, particularly in something with the weight and power of a lorry, can devastate families and their communities. So it’s disappointing that a minority of operators are still not performing effective checks.

“If we catch you with brakes that don’t work we will take your vehicles off the road to ensure the safety of the travelling public.”

Sarah Bell and Kevin Rooney, lead TCs for enforcement matters, said: “Despite the clear warnings for industry, traffic commissioners are still receiving reports about a lack of effective and proactive brake performance testing regimes.

“This is not limited to a specific type of licence, size of operator or a particular sector – it is across the board. That is why TCs are highlighting the need for a change of attitude within the industry towards brake testing.”

The post Traffic commissioners and DVSA call for more effective brake testing across the industry appeared first on Motor Transport.

Hiab has fitted a Multilift Futura 12 skiploader body onto an Emoss EMS 18 series electric chassis with Hiab’s electric power take-off (PTO) system, making it 100% electric.

The electric PTO will also be showcased at the expo, which takes place at London’s Alexandra Palace tomorrow (7 November). It allows Hiab equipment such as cranes and skiploaders to be operated with the vehicle’s engine switched off.

Hiab product manager Alastair Evans said: “It’s clean and quiet, so would be ideal for early hours skip deliveries when builders need them in an inner-city residential area.

“This is purely a concept vehicle, but if the demand is there then it could certainly go into production.”

Hiab will also be showing its Moffett E4 electric truck-mounted forklift system on its stand (V07).

• There is still time to register for the Freight in the City Expo. Join us for the latest innovations in urban delivery.

The post Hiab and Emoss to bring electric skiploader concept to Freight in the City Expo appeared first on Motor Transport.

From 1 January, gold operators whose membership comes up for review will be required to commission a site audit every two rather than three years, at an estimated additional cost of £75 a year for large operators.

Currently the bronze-level site audit lasts two years for silver operators and three years for gold members.

However, FORS community partnership director John Hix reassured operators that there are no planned changes to the standard, and members will still be required to provide evidence of meeting the gold and silver requirements on an annual basis.

“A lot can happen in three years. The gold operators are the exemplar ones, nevertheless, three years is a long time not to have a full site-based audit,” he said.

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Hix said FORS also plans to encourage more smaller operators (between one and three vehicles) to progress to gold by abolishing the evidencing fee from 1 January.

“Small operators think our current pricing is a bit funny and does not offer a financial incentive to progress,” he said. “They were telling us that because of the combined silver and gold evidencing fee, for every other year, it actually gets more expensive to progress.

“If you’re a bigger operator you have multiple audits and you therefore save on those multiple audits, so it costs you less to progress [than a smaller business].”

Since the scheme went national in 2015 it has seen high levels of interest across the UK, Hix said, with 4,700 members currently.

There has also been international interest, with Australia and Brussels considering implementing  schemes similar to FORS.

The post FORS to increase site audit frequency for gold members appeared first on Motor Transport.

Transport secretary Jesse Norman said the measures should be a significant deterrent to operators and drivers tempted to breach weekly rest rules, and hopefully help problems with illegal HGV parking in Kent.

He said: “Although an overnight rest in the cab is a legitimate and established industry practice, we must draw the line somewhere.

“Drivers should not spend an indefinite period driving and resting at their place of work- their lorry.”

The weekend cab break ban will be enforced by the DVSA and police.

The FTA said that whilst it supported the need for drivers to take their weekly rest break away from their trucks, the lack of secure parking facilities and roadside accommodation needed to be addressed.

Malcolm Bingham, the FTA’s head of road network policy, said: “Without a consistent, widespread network of safe and secure rest stops nationwide, drivers will still opt to take rest in their cabs particularly when their fully fitted cab offers a better standard than some accessible amenities.  FTA is calling on government to use common sense in applying the new £300 fines system.”

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Norman said the government may also look at increasing the penalties, potentially up to £3,000, for the most serious offences, such as tachograph manipulation.

Kent County Council will also be trialling an overnight parking ban on a stretch of the A20 and will clamp vehicles immediately, rather than waiting for a repeat offence to be committed.

“This is not about waking up drivers in the middle of the night where they are parked in proper facilities in a law-abiding way,” Norman said, “it is about deterring problematic behaviour, particularly in certain areas.”

The post DVSA to issue £300 fine for weekly rest taken in HGVs from next month appeared first on Motor Transport.

Commenting after the DVSA detailed the KPIs operators taking part in the scheme’s trial will be measured against, the FTA’s head of licensing and compliance information, James Firth, said earned recognition will need to find a delicate balance between stretching operators whilst remaining achievable.

Some areas require 100% compliance, leaving no margin for error. These include: the completion of a full set of safety inspection records; inspection records signed off as being roadworthy; safety inspections completed in the frequency stated on the firm’s O-licence; and road safety defects appropriately actioned where drivers have reported issues.

Firth said: “Record keeping is a critical aspect of the operator licensing system, and could be seen to be a fair indicator of an operator’s intent to maintain compliance, compared with other aspects which could be considered to be influenced by circumstance.”

“The DVSA has yet to define the parameters for expulsion from the scheme, and while there is a requirement that any KPI must not be failed in more than three reporting periods, at this point it is still described as the ‘start of a conversation’ between the operator and the agency.”

RHA technical director Steve Biddle said it is possible that KPIs and audit requirements could change as earned recognition still remains in its pilot stage.

He said: “The 100% requirement does not mean that if you do not meet that requirement you lose approval. It usually initiates a reminder to the operator that it has not met the requirement, so that it can look into the reasons why and try to rectify it going forward.”

The DVSA last month called for more operators to take part in the pilot, as it needed to put its requirements to the test before earned recognition is rolled out fully.

The post Earned recognition should challenge operators, but requirements must be realistic appeared first on Motor Transport.