The partnership will build on the work of Transport for London (TfL) and partner agencies in recent years, including the Industrial HGV Task Force and Commercial Vehicle Units. It will further tackle unsafe HGVs, and take any non-compliant and unsafe commercial vehicles, drivers and operators off London’s streets.
The partnership, between TfL, the DVSA, the Metropolitan Police Service and the City of London Police, will enhance the agencies’ enforcement work through better coordination of intelligence at both a strategic and tactical level.
The London Freight Enforcement Partnership will include more than 90 DVSA and police officers and a team of analysts, sharing intelligence and carrying out joint enforcement operations. Together they will have a range of expertise and powers to comprehensively address infringements, particularly by those who persistently do not comply with the law. This will also help the agencies work with the commercial vehicle industry to put serially non-compliant companies in London out of business.
Leon Daniels, TfL’s managing director of surface transport, said: “We’re determined to clear London’s streets of unsafe HGVs, so I’m delighted that we have launched the London Freight Enforcement Partnership. The lessons learned from our successful Industrial HGV Task Force have been adopted by the new partnership, which will make our streets even safer for all road users and help build a fairer industry for all freight operators.”
Sir Peter Hendy, CBE, chairman of Network Rail and chair of the London Freight Enforcement Partnership, added: “Working in a partnership, with shared expertise and intelligence, will help deliver even greater enforcement against rogue and unsafe freight operators who continue to not comply with the law and with the regulations. I am pleased to be chairing the London Freight Enforcement Partnership, which will act tirelessly to make London’s streets safer for all, particularly cyclists and pedestrians.”
Since October 2013, more than 6,030 vehicles have been targeted and stopped, 87 vehicles seized, 4,500 prosecutions progressed through the Criminal Justice System and 2,134 fixed penalty notices issued for offences including:
- Lack of insurance
- Driving without the correct licence
- Unsafe tyres
- Vehicle not equipped with cycle safeguards
- Not accurately recording driver hours.
