A Lancashire Police speed camera worker has been sacked for an error which led to 545 unsafe convictions and £35,000 in fines being refunded.

On various occasions between starting work in September 2006 and May 2007 he failed to ensure the cameras' distance measurement and alignment were correct. But he signed court papers saying they were correct, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) uncovered. On top of the refunded fines, about 1,500 penalty points were rescinded.

When the civilian employee, who worked in the force's Central Processing Unit, had 435 tapes of his work checked, it was found that 41 tapes were found to have faults through his failure to calibrate the cameras correctly.

Training review

He was the highest performing camera technician in the force in terms of offences captured. A file was prepared for the Crown Prosecution Service who determined there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges

However, the IPCC investigation has recommended the police force reviews its training of speed camera technicians and ensures regular checks are made of their work.

Two other members of staff from the Central Processing Unit are due to face disciplinary hearings by the force over inconsistencies to do with the processing of court paper work.

Naseem Malik, IPCC Commissioner for the North West, said: "This speed camera technician failed to undertake basic checks of the systems he was operating and as a result he undermined the integrity of hundreds of prosecutions.

Lessons learnt

"It would appear he was proud of his position as the top performing camera technician, but it would appear he pursued quantity at the expense of quality - and at the expense of hundreds of motorists.

"I applaud the fact that Lancashire Constabulary tackled this issue vigorously and it is worth noting that during the investigation the work of every other camera technician was checked and found to be in order."

Supt Martyn Leveridge of Lancashire Constabulary's Professional Standards Department added: "There have been lessons learnt from this investigation and the Constabulary will seek to progress areas of development so as to provide the highest quality of service to the communities of Lancashire.

"A full review of the training programme has taken place, as well as the supervision and processes involved in the work of the technicians.

"There are additional provisions now in place to regularly monitor the work of camera technicians in order to prevent this happening again in the future."

On Friday the Council of EU Transport Ministers, meeting in Luxembourg, will discuss the European Parliament proposals to liberalise the movement of lorries operating in the national territory of another country. If such a plan goes ahead then the UK can expect an invasion of foreign lorries able to offer far cheaper haulage rates due to the lower level of fuel duty for diesel which applies throughout Europe - an average of just 25p per litre compared with the UK's 50p per litre.

At present cabotage - the ability for a lorry to carry out work in a country not its own - is restricted to work picked up on the spot market following completion of a journey making an international delivery. The European Parliament is now proposing that such work can be by previously agreed contract starting with three jobs from 2009, seven jobs from 2011 and complete freedom after 2014. The substantial difference in diesel duty means that foreign lorries working in the UK can do so at an average of 8 per cent lower costs than can be achieved by the UK domestic industry, and for vehicles from Eastern Europe it can be up to 15 per cent lower.

The liberalisation of this market presents the real prospect of the establishment of depots in Calais, or elsewhere in northern France, with foreign vehicles coming into the UK on a Monday, carrying out work in the UK throughout the week, and then returning to France to refuel at the weekend. All without paying a penny to the UK exchequer in fuel duty or road charges and without the requirement to adhere to the UK's rigorous Operator Licensing regime, which has resulted in substantial advances in vehicle maintenance and road safety. A lorry with a 1,000 litre tank can travel for some 1,500 miles from Dover, allowing it to go as far north as Scotland, and work in the territory, before returning to the cheaper pumps of France without refuelling in the UK.

The UK Government is understood to be very concerned by this prospect and will be represented at the Council of Ministers by Transport Minister Rosie Winterton.

FTA Director of Policy, James Hookham said, ‘Due to the cheaper operating costs enjoyed by overseas operators when in the UK as a result of lower fuel duty, we already see large numbers of foreign trucks on UK roads. However, unless the Government succeeds in resisting these new proposals then ‘you ain't seen nothing yet'. Substantial buyers of road transport services in the UK are going to find it very hard to resist the sort of prices which will inevitably be offered by overseas hauliers, resulting in major problems for our own industry, which will simply be unable to compete in such an unfair and uneven market.

‘Of course, the problem would evaporate if the UK Government was to cut diesel duty to levels comparative with the rest of Europe, allowing our domestic industry to compete on level terms. It is unacceptable that this situation exists as a result of UK tax policy - a total own-goal. For this and other reasons, common sense demands that the policy be changed without delay. However, no sign at present.

‘FTA hopes that Ms Winterton will succeed in avoiding this potential catastrophe for the UK transport industry.'

Adminstrators have failed to find a buyer for the company

One of Britain's biggest road hauliers, Leeds-based Macfarlane Transport, has gone into administration with the loss of about 300 jobs.

The company has blamed the decision to cease trading on rising fuel prices and an increasingly competitive market.

Administrators KPMG said the company, which has an annual turnover of £20m, had seen its profit margins come under "unsustainable pressure".

A spokesman said "energetic" attempts to sell it as a going concern failed.

Hauliers' protest

Richard Fleming, KPMG restructuring partner and joint administrator, said: "It's very unfortunate that this long-established business has been unable to survive and that large scale redundancies will be inevitable as a result."

The firm runs more than 100 trucks from its base in Cross Green.

It was set up in 1978 by two brothers with one second-hand lorry.

Macfarlane Transport was later bought out by its management but went into administration for the first time in 2006 when it was rescued by local businessman Stephen Cooke.

News of the company's demise comes a day after hundreds of hauliers demonstrated in London against rising fuel prices.

The price of diesel at the pumps has risen by about 30% in the past 12 months, prompting protests by haulage companies nationwide that they are being driven out of business.

A two-pronged approach: a convoy through London on Wednesday 2 July starting at the A40. This will be followed by a mass lobby of parliament.

The organisations involved rule this out on the grounds that it’s illegal. However, that’s not to say rogue protestors not connected to the organisations involved could at some point attempt to take matters into their own hands.

A mixture of several organisations: Wednesday’s protest was originally organised by pressure group TransAction – a loose collective of hauliers that was behind some of the protests in 2000 and the two demonstrations in April and May this year. However, since it was first suggested the Road Haulage Association has come on board as has the Transport Association, which represents around 60 of the biggest family-owned haulage companies in the country. The other industry body, the Freight Transport Association, has been conducting its own campaign and dialogue with the government and does not favour direct action.

The simple answer is the price of fuel. This has soared by over 40% the last 12 months from 76p/lit this time last year to an average of 106p/lit per litre now. Although clearly this has gone up across the world the UK government has exacerbated the problem with a particularly high tax take – 50p on a litre of fuel. Apart from the Netherlands we pay the highest fuel tax of anywhere in Europe. The government is still planning to add another 2p of tax to a litre of fuel in October.

Some can, some can’t. Generally the more sizeable businesses will have what are known as fuel escalators built into their contracts so that when the price of fuel goes up, their rate goes up too. However, for those at the smaller end or working on a casual basis it is much harder to get customers to agree to the introduction of either fuel escalators or rate rises. Additionally customers have their own cost pressures too – and they may not be in a position to sustain constant price rises any more than the haulier can.

Ultimately cost rises are reflected in the price the public pays for goods in the shops too – between 10-15% of the cost of anything in the supermarket is taken up by distribution costs and a 10% rise in the price of fuel equates to an extra 3% of transport cost.

Because fuel is still relatively cheap on the continent it is possible for foreign vehicles to come to the UK with a full tank of fuel and undertake what’s known as cabotage – intra-UK journeys at a much reduced price. Although this work is currently limited to a temporary basis, foreign vehicles have a wider ‘footprint’ in that they distort the market by depressing prices. An additional concern is the fact that foreign trucks, particularly those from Eastern Europe, are frequently found to be in a worse condition than those from the UK and their drivers more likely to be breaking the stringent hours regulations that govern the sector, putting public safety at risk.

To compound the problem the EU wants to liberalise the haulage market in the future, allowing hauliers from any country to work in the UK for an indefinite period.

In a recent piece of research for the FTA it was found that apart from Holland, UK hauliers had the highest operating costs of anywhere in Europe.

First and foremost is that the government cancel the fuel duty rise planned for October.

Secondly they want the government to give the industry an ‘Essential User Rebate’ – i.e. to lower the duty paid on fuel used by road hauliers, recognising that they provide an essential service to the country. This would be similar to the tax break enjoyed by farmers on red diesel. Ultimately there needs to be a decoupling of the way the haulage industry is taxed from the rest of the motoring population.

At the same time the RHA has sponsored an SNP amendment to the Finance Bill that proposes the introduction of a fuel duty regulator, so that when the price of fuel rose beyond a certain level, the rate of duty came down, effectively capping the price.

Officially it is still pressing ahead with the October duty hike, although most observers believe this will be postponed. However, the government is widely recognised to be in a financial mess and the Treasury is loath to forfeit any revenue. FTA estimates that if the 2p/lit does not go ahead then the government will miss out on some £2bn of revenue. Equally it is pursuing a green agenda and because all motorists pay the same tax on fuel it feels that if it cuts fuel taxes it is sending out the wrong message about car use.

It is also insistent that the industry become more efficient in order to maximise its profitability. It says that extra resources are the answer to illegal foreign operation rather than any form of charging.
The government would also like to see a modal shift to rail.

Put simply, it doesn’t work for the majority of freight. Even if the infrastructure was there to cater for a massive increase in the amount of goods transported by rail, the end journey would still need to be performed by a truck. Think about where your nearest railhead is…

This articel is reported by roadtransport.com

The Freight Transport Association says that fuel duty for heavy lorries could be halved at a cost to the exchequer of around £380 million per year - a sum already exceeded by increased VAT and North Sea oil revenues to the Government as a consequence of higher world oil prices. FTA says that the transport industry desperately needs support in the face of increased diesel prices of over 40 per cent during the last year. The Government cannot deliver lower oil prices but can cut fuel duty.

FTA commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to research the impact on Government revenue of decoupling diesel duty on heavy lorries of over 38 tonnes from duty for other commercial vehicles and for cars. The cost of operating a heavy goods vehicle (HGV) in the UK is approximately 10 per cent higher than in other parts of the European Union. The main cost of operation is fuel, which constituted 32 per cent of annual cost in 2007. At 50.35 pence per litre (ppl), fuel duty in the UK is twice the European average of 24.97ppl. FTA believes that this differential puts UK lorry operators at a significant disadvantage compared with other parts of Europe, a disadvantage which will become even more serious if the EU goes ahead with plans to liberalise road haulage, thus allowing foreign operators to offer cheaper prices in the UK than can be achieved by the domestic industry.

The most favourable option identified by PwC allowed for a rebate of 25ppl to be provided, calculated on the distance travelled against fuel purchased in the UK by operators of vehicles of 38 tonnes and above, the weight level most favoured by foreign companies working in the UK and thus providing the most intensive competition. This arrangement could be further refined by restriction to Euro 3 vehicles and above - those producing the least emissions. A rate relating to miles per gallon could be set by HM Treasury.

PwC has calculated that such an arrangement would reduce Government income from these vehicles from around £1 billion per year to £413 million. However, providing the rebate would itself result in further income from the Government of some £200 million. This would result from increased corporation tax, business growth generating more taxation, new fuel purchases by foreign operators working in the UK, and increased employment leading to higher income tax and national insurance receipts. Thus total Government income would reduce by only around £380 million.

FTA Director of Policy James Hookham said, ‘The transport industry delivers the UK economy for the benefit of the whole population. The industry is clearly suffering from the massive increases in the price of diesel whilst the UK operates the highest levels of duty in the whole of Europe. And with the EU about to remove the present limits on foreign lorries working in the UK, now is the hour for the Government to deliver some practical steps to support the industry.

‘After the 2000 fuel crisis Gordon Brown promised to consider the way in which transport is taxed. Eight years later we have seen no progress. The proposals researched by PwC for FTA offer practical and relatively economic means of real assistance for our vital industry at such a difficult time. The Government must address these problems.’

FTA has submitted the PwC proposals to the Chancellor and to the Prime Minister.

The Freight Transport Association has given a cautious welcome to the agreement reached at the EU Council of Transport Ministers in Luxembourg last Friday (13 June) which proposes to allow member states to protect the interests of their domestic transport industry by permitting them to ‘introduce protective measures in case of serious disturbances of the national transport market'. In effect this would enable the UK to introduce legislation which would prohibit contract work from being carried out by visiting foreign lorries.

FTA had been concerned that the large differential in diesel duty between the UK and the rest of the EU would provide foreign vehicles with an unfair competitive advantage over the domestic fleet. Duty on diesel in the UK is 50p per litre (ppl) - twice the European average of 25ppl.

FTA Director of Policy, James Hookham said, ‘Transport minister Rosie Winterton and her team from the Department for Transport are to be congratulated on what they were able to achieve at the Council of Ministers meeting. This outcome is much better than expected and a credit to fine British diplomacy. Had plans gone ahead for a complete liberalisation of the EU haulage market then we would have seen substantial and increased competition from the rest of Europe based on their lower operating costs, notably cheaper fuel due to lower diesel duty. This would undoubtedly have severely damaged the domestic haulage industry in the UK. However, the problem is not yet resolved as the European Parliament still needs to agree to this change.

‘If all goes well we now hope to see the Department for Transport introducing enforceable legislation in the UK limiting the extent of the work which foreign vehicles can do - probably very similar to the spot work they do at present. But the 25ppl differential in diesel prices between the UK and the rest of Europe remains in itself a major concern to the transport industry.

‘The potential future problem has been postponed rather than eliminated, since it is clear that the European Parliament wants to see full liberalisation. As such, the long-term solution must be for the UK to make progress towards bringing diesel duty levels more in line with the EU average. To this end FTA recently submitted to the Treasury proposals formulated by PricewaterhouseCoopers which are designed to achieve this.'

Friday's meeting also agreed to create an exchange of information on vehicles coming into foreign territory, including those coming into the UK. The Commission will issue guidelines on the data which will have to be entered in the national electronic register, including details of registration marks. FTA has for some time called for a pan-European database of information on international movements of lorries in order to improve security and to aid enforcement of road safety regulations.