The Courier Shop

Having a quick look through RoadTRansport.com I came across a story that recommends http://www.vanadviser.com/ there are a series of free reports to download that will help you make the right decision when buying a van.

I have just downloaded the alternative fuels and environment one and so far it’s a good read.
Also worth checking out is the vehicle running costs pdf.

A very useful resource.

Sarah

New  game from Y8, they have come up with a game playing the stereotypical white van man driver.
The object of this simple game is to ram the other cars off of the road and complete the course… of course

Y8 New games

What do you think? Will it catch on?

Well it seems like there really is nothing new under the sun, as vehicle satellite tracking has been rebranded as the tool to tame white van man. The ‘new’ product is called “Driver DNA” and tracks the driving of a vehicle and shows harsh braking patterns and agressive driving patterns, again all things that are shown in real time with satellite tracking.  A system we use goes as far as ‘geo-fencing’ postcodes and emailing alerts when vehicles reach a certain area or postcode or breaks the speed limit. It can tell you when the vehicle is turned on, whether it’s idling – just about anything you could want to know and quite a few things you wouldn’t want to know as well.

Couriers have long used Tom Tom fleet systems and products such as Journeeze to manage their fuel consumption and where their vehicles are. Fuel is the biggest expenditure where white van man are concerned and monitoring closely is something they do. As any good fleet manager would tell you, monitoring fuel consumption is an early highlighter of vehicle faults and all vehicles are checked on a daily or weekly basis as per transport regulations, with records that prove the action has taken place.

Driver DNA hardly seems original, any good tracking system will do the same as it does and has several years heritage as well. It’s disappointing that once again white van man is blamed for co2 emissions and bad driving. Obviously the makers have never seen or drove near school run mum, who drives erratically without thought for anyone else on the road just delivering her kids to the school, reversing without using her mirrors, signaling one way then going the other. Now you know why most accidents happen close to schools. Instead of inventing the double seatbelt to combat School Run Mum, the creators of Driver DNA have just decided to reinvent the wheel with no thought to what products already do the job, that already solving the problem they proclaim exists.

2/10 for effort, must try harder is this white van womans report, you are three years behind the times.

Sarah

This post is a guest blog from Lloyd of Novadata Ltd. Novadata provide support and training for driver cpc, contact details at the end of the post.

Forthcoming Legislation for drivers and the transport industry.

2009

1 October – PSV impounding – Enabling legislation is in place to introduce impounding for public service vehicle operators that use vehicles without holding an operator’s licence – broadly mirroring the system already in place for goods vehicle operators.

1 October – Euro 5 emission standard – New goods vehicles will be required to meet this standard which further reduces permitted vehicle emissions.

2010

6 April 2010 – C1 & D1 supervisor changes – The DSA intends to change the rules for supervisors of learner drivers in categories C1, C1+E, D1 & D1+E, Where the supervisors hold vocational entitlements gained on a pre-1997 car

licence (known as implied rights). Those who currently rely on implied rights entitlements and want to continue to supervise drivers in C1, D1 and vehicle plus trailer combinations will need to pass the relevant driving test(s) and meet the higher medical standards required by drivers of larger vehicles before 6 April 2010. The will also have to wait until they have held their new entitlement for three years before they can act as the supervising driver.

Spring – Road Safety Compliance – A DFT consultation includes proposals to:

Introduce six penalty points for exceeding the speed limit by 20mph (spring 2010)
Remove blood and urine drink – driving tests and introduce medical examinations for high risk offenders (2011/2012)
Lower the maximum permissible blood alcohol limit.
Enable drug-driving samples to be taken more easily and to develop a new drug driving offence (2011/2012)
Make careless driving a fixed penalty offence – £60 with three penalty points (early 2010)
Specify retraining courses for vocational drivers where a licence has been revoked by Traffic Commissioners and where they believe completion of such a course would be an appropriate condition of restoration

A Home Office consultation is also proposing to increase the fixed penalty for failing to wear a seat belt to £60.

Spring – Graduated Fixed Penalties in Northern Ireland – The department of the Environment has issued a consultation proposing to introduce a scheme similar to that in GB to allow examiners of the DVA to issue fixed penalty notices. The proposed legislation would also introduce deposit and immobilisation schemes. The consultation runs until 30 September 2009 and, if confirmed, implementation is expected around the spring of 2010

Spring – OCRS changes – three key changes are expected:

Publication of the points system for the traffic enforcement score, graded according to the graduated fixed penalty bands
An increase to 3-% in the green band linked to non-mechanical (traffic enforcement) score for operators with the lowest index scores
Extension of the red band for roadworthiness and non-mechanical offences from the 81st percentile to the 71st percentile – this means a larger proportion (the worst 30% rather than 20%) of operators will be actively targeted for enforcement.

April – Cabotage Regulation – An EU regulation tightens the rules on cabotage – the national carriage of goods by road undertaken on a temporary basis by a non-resident hauler. It limits haulers to a maximum of three cabotage operations can be carried out in any member state, but where entry into the member state is unladen, the haulier is limited to one cabotage operation per member state within three days of entry. Hauliers must produce evidence of international carriage and cabotage operations.
4 October – Low Emission Zone (LEZ) – The London LEZ covers all London boroughs and applies a Euro 3 standard to buses, coaches and goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes. Vehicles that do not meet the standard have to pay a daily charge. The scheme will be tightened to Euro 4 from January 2012. A consultation is expected soon to scrap the intended extension to light goods vehicles and minibuses in October 2010
Autumn – Continuous Enforcement of Motor Insurance – The DFT has published a consultation on plans to use the DVLA’s vehicles register and the Motor Insurance Database (MID) held by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau to warn and then penalise (fixed penalty of £100, immobilisation and eventually disposal) vehicle keepers who fail to hold valid insurance. Enabling legislation is already in place in the 2006 Road Safety Act and implementation is expected from autumn 2010.

2011

1 January – ADR Changes – The 2009 text for ADR has been adopted into new GB regulations. From 1 January 2011 there are also changes to the carriage of dangerous goods packed in limited quantities, including new placarding requirements for transport units over 12 tonnes tare weight that are carrying limited quantities goods in excess of 8 tonnes.

7 February – Daytime Running Lamps – Proposals for the introduction of mandatory dedicated daytime running lamps (DRLs) have been adopted for all vehicle categories excluding trailers. DRLs must be switched on when the vehicle ignition switch enables starting/running of the engine. The lamps will be built into new cars and vans from February 2011 and all other vehicle categories, including trucks, from August 2012. There are no plans to retrofit or for older vehicles to use other lights when driving in daylight.

April – Northern Ireland Operator Licensing Reform – The DOE intends to amend the operator licensing system to mirror that of GB, including a system for restricted operating licensing, but with the exception of a Traffic Commissioner. Primary legislation is expected this year but implementation may take several years.

10 July – Conspicuity Marking – the UK Government has agreed to the introduction of additional outline reflective markings on goods vehicles. The change was planned to affect vehicles first registered on or after 10 October 2009 but has now been delayed to 10 July 2011. The UN technical Committee (UNECE) has published the requirements in an amendment to R48, which will apply additional side and rear markings to new goods vehicles over 7.5 tonnes and new trailers over 3.5 tonnes.

5 December – Temporary Agency Workers Directive – A European directive requires domestic legislation to provide for the equal treatment of temporary agency workers in relation to basic working and employment conditions, access to permanent employment and amenities (such as child care facilities) to improve access to training.

Hope you find this useful and Novadata can be contacted on 01376 552999

Sarah

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Delivering into ports is something that we enjoy doing here at same day couriers -Arrow Light Haulage, when starting out delivering or collecting from a port is something thats easy when you know how. If you don’t do it correctly then you will hold up the collection or the delivery and in some cases you may fail to deliver or collect. This is when the fines start to come in.

What to remember for port collections or deliveries

• no children
• no animals
• 2 forms of ID thats photograhic
• high viz jacket
• safety boots
• clear manifest of what is being delivered / collected

Failing to collect or deliver from a port is a serious issue for a courier, it is something that incurs port fines. This is something that needs to be taken into account when pricing for this type of work. Often a courier or courier company will think that they can do a deal and co load something with the port delivery and price it at a lower rate to win the business.

The courier wins the job but now has the port items on with other items. This means it takes longer if the vehicle is searched at port security or longer to complete the delivery itself, as its going to another destination first. When this happens the courier could miss their booking in slot and incur a fine. A courier I know racked up 30k in fines in one month, not very good for their business.

If you are looking at gaining work from portside warehouses or delivering into them on a regular basis, make sure you follow their guidelines and make sure you have plenty of time to make your booking in slot.

Kevin Arrow

Become a courier

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