Freight
These regulations aim to protect drivers of large vehicles and other road users without placing unnecessary burdens on the organisations that employ them.
They cover issues such as vehicle roadworthiness, drivers’ hours, and standards for transporting dangerous goods. Some of these regulations set out the penalty regime, including fixed penalties for non-UK registered operators.
You can find all the regulations that relate to freight below to the left.
| Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations 2009
Imposes requirements and prohibitions around the carriage of dangerous goods by road and by rail and inland waterway. |
| Radioactive Material (Road Transport) (Definition of Radioactive Material) Order 2002 Defines ‘radioactive material’ for the purposes of the Radioactive Material (Road Transport) Act 1991 |
| Carriage of Goods (Prohibition of Discrimination) Regulations 1977 (8)
concerns the abolition of national discrimination in transport rates and conditions. |
| Carriage of Goods by Road (Parties to Convention) (Amendment) Order 1980
Updates the states and territories for which the Convention on the Contract for International Carriage of Goods applies |
| Carriage of Goods by Road (Parties to Convention) Order 1967,
Gives effect in the UK to the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road 1956. |
| Community Drivers’ Hours and Recording Equipment Regulations 2007
These regulation implement the EU drivers’ hours rules (that cover most HGV drivers and about half the bus and coach drivers in the UK) |
| Drivers’ Hours (Goods Vehicles) (Exemptions) Regulations 1986 (2)
These regulations specify exemptions from the domestic drivers’ hours rules (which affects most vehicles not in scope of the EU drivers’ hours rules, including smaller goods vehicles and local buses).
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| Drivers’ Hours (Goods Vehicles) (Keeping of Records) Regulations 1987
These regulations specify the record keeping requirements for certain vehicles in relations to the domestic drivers’ hours regime (which affects most vehicles not in scope of the EU drivers’ hours rules, including smaller goods vehicles and local buses) |
| Drivers’ Hours (Goods Vehicles) (Milk Collection) (Temporary Exemption) Regulations 2007
These Regulations grant an emergency exemption from the domestic drivers’ hours regime pursuant to the Foot and Mouth crisis in 2007 |
| Drivers’ Hours (Goods Vehicles) (Modifications) Order 1986 (2)
These regulations specify the application of the domestic drivers’ hours rules (which affect most vehicles not in scope of the EU drivers’ hours rules, including smaller goods vehicles and local buses) to goods vehicle drivers |
| Drivers’ Hours (Harmonisation with Community Rules) Regulations 1986
These regulations clarify driving and duty requirements for drivers who drive under both the EU drivers’ hours rules (that cover most HGV drivers and about half the bus and coach drivers in the UK) and the domestic drivers’ hours rules (which affect most vehicles not in scope of the EU drivers’ hours rules (including smaller goods vehicles and local buses).
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| Driver’s Hours (Passenger and Goods Vehicles) (Modifications) Order 1971
These regulations specify the application of the domestic drivers’ hours rules (which affect most vehicles not in scope of the EU drivers’ hours rules (including smaller goods vehicles and local buses) to passenger vehicle drivers. |
| Drivers’ Hours (Passenger Vehicles) (Exemptions) Regulations 1970
These regulations deal with exemptions from the domestic drivers’ hours rules (which affect most vehicles not in scope of the EU drivers’ hours rules (including smaller goods vehicles and local buses) for emergencies and ‘special needs’ (blood transfusions and carriage of the disabled).
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| Goods Vehicles (Community Authorisations) (Modification of the Road Traffic (Foreign Vehicles) Act 1972) Regulations 2002
Allow examiners to prohibit goods vehicles not conforming with European standards for authorisation.
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| Heavy Goods Vehicles (Charging for the Use of Certain Infrastructure on the Trans-European Road Network) Regulations 2009
Relates to tolls or user charges for use by HGVs of the Trans-European Road Network infrastructure in the UK, prescribes requirements about calculation, levying and collection of tolls etc.
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| International Carriage of Perishable Foodstuffs Regulations 1985 (23)
Makes provision on the international carriage of perishable foodstuffs
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| International Carriage of Perishable Foodstuffs (Vehicles With Thin Side Walls) Regulations 1987
Prescribe fees payable in connection with the testing of units of transport equipment with thin side walls used for the international carriage of frozen and deep frozen foodstuffs to and from Italy.
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| Passenger and Goods Vehicles (Community Recording Equipment Regulation) Regulations 2010
These regulations update the definition of the Community Recording Equipment Regulation (EU tachograph rules) in legislation so that the definition takes account of changes made to that regulations.
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| Passenger and Goods Vehicles (Recording Equipment) (Downloading and Retention of Data) Regulations 2008
These regulations require drivers in scope of the EU drivers’ hours rules (that cover most HGV drivers and about half the bus and coach drivers in the UK) to return records of their activities to their employer within a certain period of time.
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| Passenger and Goods Vehicles (Recording Equipment) (Fitting Date) Regulations 2006
These Regulations set the date from which a digital tachograph must be fitted to a new vehicle which requires a tachograph.
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| Passenger and Goods Vehicles (Recording Equipment) (Tachograph Card) Regulations 2006
In relation to digital tachograph cards, these Regulations prohibit the use of more than one card, of another person’s card, of a forged/altered card and of a card from an incorrect application. |
| Passenger and Goods Vehicles (Recording Equipment) Regulations 1979
These regulations specify the requirements for the installation or repair of tachograph checks and inspections.
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| Passenger and Goods Vehicles (Recording Equipment) Regulations 1989 These regulations concern tachograph-related offences and penalties
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| PPassenger and Goods Vehicles (Recording Equipment) Regulations 2005 These Regulations take account of digital tachographs including changes to the enforcement regime for analogue/digital tachographs and detailed enforcement provisions for the Vehicle & Operator Service Agency (VOSA) and the Police.
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| Road Safety (Financial Penalty Deposit) (Appropriate Amount) Order 2009
Sets the appropriate financial penalty deposit for a range of offences.
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| Road Safety (Financial Penalty Deposit) Order 2009
Sets out the financial penalty deposit regime
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| Road Safety (Immobilisation, Removal and Disposal of Vehicles) Regulations 2009
Provides for the immoblisation, removal and disposal ofcertain vehicles which have been prohibited from being driven.
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| Traffic Areas (Reorganisation) Order 1990
Alters the boundaries of Traffic Areas in Great Britain |
| Traffic Areas (Reorganisation) Order 1991
Updates the boundaries of traffic areas in Great Britain.
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| Fixed Penalty (Amendment) Order 2010
Alters the amount of the penalty prescribed for certain offences (registration marks and insufficient tyre tread depths for motorcycles) |
| Road Safety (Financial penalty Deposit) (Amendment) Order 2010
Specifies certain offences so that a financial penalty deposit can be imposed for certain offences (registration marks) |
| Road Vehicles (Powers to Stop) Regulations 2011
Enables VOSA examiners to stop commercial vehicles to conduct an inspection at the roadside. |
| Goods Vehicles (Community Authorisations) Regulations 1992
These Regulations establish in UK law, a Community-wide authorisation allowing goods vehicles access to the market in the carriage of goods by road between EU member States.
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| Goods Vehicles (Ascertainment of Maximum Gross Weights) Regulations 1976
Prescribes how to calculate certain aspects of “relevant maximum weight” and “relevant maximum train weight” of various classes of vehicle |
Tell us what you think should happen to these regulations and why, being specific where possible:
- Should we scrap them altogether?
- Could their purpose be achieved in a non-regulatory way (eg through a voluntary code?) How?
- Could they be reformed, simplified or merged? How?
- Can we reduce their bureaucracy through better implementation? How?
- Can we make their enforcement less burdensome? How?
- Should they be left as they are?
All of the Road Transportation legislation listed has taken years of campaigning at times by Trade Unions and other stakeholders and has successfully made it through both the House of Parliament and the House of Lords before taking their place on the statute book.
The ‘Red Tape Challenge for Road Transportation’ should not be used as a sounding board for the Government of the day to remove and change legislation as they feel based on ad hoc website comments. This is undemocratic and completely ignores the democratic process that we already have for law creation, change or removal.
Therefore Unite the Union does not consider the Governments ‘Red Tape Challenge for Road Transportation’ as being proper consultation and rightfully expect the Government to conduct full comprehensive consultation, with Trade Unions and other stakeholders on any areas of proposed change.
In addition Unite would like to take this opportunity to state how extremely concerned Unite are with the Government’s drastic cuts programme, which is jeopardising the recovery and may even lead to a ‘double dip’ recession.
Continued investment in transport infrastructure is crucial to delivering and maintaining economic growth. It will not only help build the UK out of recession by providing jobs and attracting investment, but provides an essential element for long-term, sustainable growth.
Every transport mode makes a substantial direct and indirect contribution to the UK economy and Unite will protect its members and their terms and conditions vigorously across all these modes of transport.
Unite the Union
All commercial UK vehicles should be required to be right-hand-drive. Must comply to UK safety regulations and must the operator must have a UK license (or of equivalent standard).
During winter months (Dec, Jan, Feb) all commercial and business vehicles should be required to run on cold-season tyres. This restriction should not apply to private vehicles.
Remove vehicle class specific speed limits, especially 40 mph for LGVs on single carriageway A roads. The public and some of the police don’t understand them and the congestion / safety impact is clear to see with a train of cars
and vans juggling to overtake each other and the LGV at the head of the procession.
I say “get rid” because safety related vehicle specific limits are now enforced by limiters and we don’t need to rearrange the deckchairs by changing 40mph to 50 mph when limiters are at 56.
CPC driver training has little or no benefit in the real world and merely adds to the issues/costs already faced by most hauliers. What real benefit is acheived from cpc driver training ? drivers pass a test in order to drive an lgv why do they need further training etc. This merely seems to be a way of keeping ‘trainers’ in jobs, we already have to re-test our people every 3 years for fork lift truck, telehandler, slinger banksman, lift supervisor, safety passport, mewp, harness use and inspection etc etc do we really need more ?
We should scrap the driver cpc (other EU countries will not adopt or enforce it, like so many other things it will just be the UK)
The Driver CPC was introduced “as a good idea” and in principle it is and there it ends. The UK DSA volunteered in Brussels to pilot this scheme whereby it would be monitored for success and duly rolled out across the EU member states.
There was very little if any sensible consultation with people who know and work in the industry which it affects before it was given the go ahead, but there were lots of highly paid consultants there who were paid for by the British taxpayer.
We have a lot of positive feedback from the DSA and other bodies with a vested interest in job creation to keep the whole thing alive.
However the feed back from its customers is quite different insomuch that it is unnecessary, unwanted, wastes time for all concerned (with the exception of those who run the courses, do the documentation and take the fees). When you consider the cost of the course, the value added time lost by its attendees and the cost of a truck standing idle and multiply that up across the UK it is hundreds of millions of pounds waste!! Who pays? The end user, whoever uses what is transported!! Shame.
In conclusion the old adage of “if you can’t measure it you can’t manage it” really does apply here, attend the course day dream and go home.
On another note many of you will have heard of the Pareto Principle or the 80/20, simply if we ditch 20% of unnecessary rules, regulations and jobs for the boys we will save 80% of our time and costs.
I must congratulate Mike Perris on his excellent post above which sums the whole sorry state of the DCPC very well.
The government need to act now and scrap the DCPC once and for all.
The overall freight industry is the great “unseen” part of the economy – it drives our whole way of life, and road freight accounting for approx 90% of movements in the UK, we need to raise the public perception of what it achieves, to stop the worrying idea that if we get trucks off the roads everyone can go happily about their business in their cars!
Legislation on night running where it exists needs to be reduced in order to drive efficiency, and larger vehicles should be allowed where volume is reached before weight. Any improvment in freight efficiency will help to drive economic growth.
We have some of the strictest legislation in the world regarding road freight, and therefore benefit from some of the safest roads, so any reduction in legislation must drive efficiency without reducing standards.
We recognise that there may be a need for simplification and streamlining of legislation. This should not seek to reduce standards in the freight sector, or to impact on the competitive position between modes. It is concerning that the red tape challenge for road freight is taking place several months ahead of the exercise for rail, suggesting that there will be a lack of cross modal alignment in considering appropriate standards, and resultant costs across the freight sector.
On major artillery roads Freight transport should be restricted. For example say between 7-9 am 5 and 7 pm on the major artillery roads other similar problematic local roads no HGV’s should be moving on the highway.
They should be encouraged to complete most transportation on the roads overnight. (possible financial incentive) to keep the roads clear & free flowing for the majority of road users.
London Boroughs Transport Scheme: This requires a rethink. It costs a huge amount of money for the affected businesses, adds to pollution levels & forces some operators to avoid delivering overnight when the traffic levels are less and as such adds to congestion …. is this a triple whammy? No-one wants to see LGVs using rat runs down residential streets at night so a decent joined up approach is needed taking into account cost, the environment & congestion.
I believe the Driver CPC is a good thing and whilst at present it’s only a ‘turn-up and show’ requirement, and as a Driver CPC (DCCPC) trainer myself, I have had over 30 years in the industry; have been to college to qualify as a trainer so feel this is very much down to the trainer and training provider. Having attended numerous other training courses; some even by national training bodies; I am frankly appalled by the low level of material,skills and lack of handouts. Having read some of the comments below about the DCPC, I believe that these are either from people with bad experiences or as ever the truck industry thinking they are being persecuted and feel that as they have ‘been doing the job for year’ feel they know everything and do not require training. I have trained several hundred drivers caoch and truck a like and NO-ONE has left one of my courses having learned nothing or without actual handouts or handouts being arranged. If you were to bring in a pass or fail requirement to the DCPC you would lose even more of the ever aging workforce. I believe in making it interesting; engaging the everyone attending the course and being passionate about the industry are key to making sure it is more knowledgable and respected.
As a transport manager running a fleet of HGV’s and 7.5t’s it is shocking to me that a 7.5t driver with no formal training whatsoever can get into a vehicle capable of killing.
As a company we are very strict on who we employ and use a tight induction programme to make sure we get the right personnel in the right job – I am aware however of companies that simply hand over keys and paperwork and let the driver ‘get on with it’, which as a father of two children is concerning that people in that position are working out on the road day-in-day-out.
‘Grandfather rights’ should be targeted as being removed, give drivers 2 or 3 years to take a test for the provision, which should be easily passable by regular, good drivers. The dCPC should help but is not a practical implementation of a drivers training or skill.
Also if a driver fails, or refuses to take an alchoho/drugs test the company should be duty bound to report to the police.
ive been driving hgv for years more tests etc and this crap on trainig is a money making scam, do you really think a peice of paper with a tick on is going to change standards of driving.
a) Inappropriate speed limits: 40mph for HGV’s on single carriageway roads.
The advance in braking quality and handling of heavy goods vehicles it is time that the 40mph limit on single carriageway roads was scrapped. The long queues of traffic behind such vehicles are a constant source of delay and frustration leading to silly overtaking manoeuvres and subsequent accidents.
b) Unconstitutional:
To maintain a transport Operators Licence it is necessary to have a certificate of ‘good character’. If a driver were to protest, such as against the draconian tax regime on our fuel; the state of our roads; the unfair advantage foreign registered trucks have; or any other ‘protest demonstration’ the operators licence will be in jeopardy. This law is contrary to our human right to protest, when such action may lead to the removal of your livelihood, and should be removed.
Driver CPC is fundementally a good concept, and many drivers who have done some CPC training will tell you that they have picked up very usefu linformation, but unfortunately it is flawed in a few ways and this is helping to discredit it. The rule should be that no identical course can be taken within a year, rather than the present fiasco where drivers can retake the same course 5 days running and receive their DQC. The approvals unit also need to talk to the drivers when they carry out audits, there is alot of talk of trainers running 4 hour courses and uploading 7 hours, devalueing the whole concept. The Department for Transport also needs to get off its’ backside and go out and sell DCPC,rather than leaving it to training organisations. On raising the speedlimit for single carraigeway roads to 50 for HGVs, please think carefully, as many drivers who run at 45 – 50 now will then start running at 56 causing mayhem. This move willonly workwith tighter enforcement.
Too many regulators involved in the transport of dangerous goods trying to regulate the same aspects, currently any operator transporting Dangerous goods can find themsleves subject to routine audits by Vosa, DfT, CAA, HSE, the EA, Police and NaCTSO… all with different regulatory authority to check the same basic thing: safety and security of loads in transport.
The Road and Air Transport regulations make adequate provision for all aspects of public and occupational safety as well as security of loads, the intervention by the other regulators is just an unnecessary duplication of time and effort that serves no purpose other than to add costs to industry.
While the trade and storage of these goods may be subject to the attentions of these other regulators, from the moment they enter the transport chain to the moment they are delivered, safe transport and storage should be the sole remit of the DfT or CAA under the relevant sections of the applicable transport regulations.
You quote in the About section of Red Tape Challenge
“Once you’ve had your say, Ministers will have three months to work out which regulations they want to keep and why.
But here’s the most important bit – the default presumption will be that burdensome regulations will go.
If Ministers want to keep them, they have to make a very good case for them to stay”.
I just hope and pray some one in the Cabinet Office is taking note of all the opposition to the driver CPC.
As i have stated previously having driven an HGV Class 1 for the last 35 years can someone please explain why on earth i need 5 days training to tell my how to do what i have been doing for the past 35 years!!!!!
I would have to have a week off work with no pay then pay around £450 to listen to someone who has simply paid JAUPT to be a teacher and doesn’t need any qualifications.
My qualifications speak for themselves over 35 years in the haulage industry diving Class 1 vehicles the length and breadth of the UK.
The government needs to act now and scrap the driver CPC.
It’s an absolute pathetic waste of money and if it is not scrapped by 2014 i think i will call it a day like many of my colleague’s in their mid to late 50s
The drivers cpc is the most ill concieved rubbish for experienced drivers. I did my ADR recently and had to fork out an extra £120 odd quid so that I could include it towards my CPC entitlement. So, a course I would have done anyway which is classed as extra training, but I have to pay £120 quid for it to count. At the least the ADR is a pass/fail whereas the cpc I could fall asleep and still pass. Many semi retired drivers will hang up their keys come 2014 when they either have to take the cpc or give up work. This sector contribute a hell of lot to the driving hours, and I can only think that come 2014, the cpc will be scrapped, or there will be riots at Tesco when nothing is on the shelves, or else you will have a huge wave of eastern euro drivers encouraged to work here to take up the slack and running bent thereby giving VOSA more headaches than Panadol can handle.
get rid of the driver cpc all it is is another tax and the people teaching it dont know there **** from there elbow
Driver CPC is a complete waste of man hours & resources.
It and seems to be created as a self justifying entity. We might as well create a sub- industry where everyone walks around in circles and then surround it with registration fees, courses, qualifications, training requirements, auditing and then surround the whole thing in expensive IT infrastructure and office staff. Massive productivity vacum for ZERO beneft.
Get rid or have a serious re-think about it.
i do belive that with the braking systems on tractor units and trailers, the current speed limit of 40mph should be raised to 50mph. This will also reduce fuel consumption as the engine will be working more effectlively, and help to reduce congestion, fustration and accidents.