London Councils make right decision on safety requirements but opportunity missed
The Freight Transport Association has welcomed the decision of London Councils’ Transport and Environment Committee not to proceed with its proposed amendments to the London Lorry Control Scheme to add requirements for sideguards and class V and VI mirrors.
FTA’s Head of Urban Logistics and Regional Policy, Christopher Snelling, commented: “London Councils has reached the only sensible decision it could, as its planned changes were due to be totally overtaken by the Mayor’s Safer Lorry Scheme only a few months later. FTA has always believed that this was the wrong approach anyway, but to have two regulatory regimes in London trying to control the same thing would have been a nonsensical example of unnecessary red tape.”
FTA stated that London Councils’ measures were only ever going to have a marginal impact on safety. The real story is that once again a much bigger opportunity has been missed to make it easier for lorries to deliver at night when fewer cyclists and pedestrians are about. It is disappointing that London Councils refuses to revisit this regulation, which is based on the trucks of the 1980s. The scheme deters operators from making quiet deliveries in the off-peak hours, and makes those who do take longer routes.
Snelling concluded: “Out of hours deliveries have safety, emissions and congestion benefits that London could really use. The boroughs that make up London Councils should look again at this out-of-date regulation.”
