The RHA and what we can do for you
Presentation of "What do we do"
As most of you will know the Road Haulage Association is divided into four Regions:
- Midlands and Western, with its office base in Bristol
- Northern, whose base is Cleckheaton
- Scotland and Northern Ireland, covered from its base in Edinburgh
- Southern and Eastern, with an office in Peterborough.
The Regional Directors are responsible for looking after the members in their respective regions, as well as implementing Regional policy as drawn up by each of the Regional Councils. Remember, it is the members who make the policies and the RHA staff are there to deliver the policies. So, what do you get from your Region?
Regional Councils
These are made up of delegates elected by their fellow members to represent the Region and to formulate policy within the Region. National policy is formulated by the Board of Directors - but that's another story. So - if you are interested in having a say in what the RHA does - get onto your Regional Council. The councils meet every two months and are an important building block in the overall RHA structure.
Area Managers
Area Managers represent the RHA out on the ground. They are the people who visit members and attend meetings on a large variety of subjects with a wide range of organisations such as Freight Quality Partnerships, local highway authorities, VOSA, the police, Maintenance Advisory Commitees, Highways Agency and HMRC to name but a few. Names and contact details for Area Managers are available on individual regional pages of this website.
The Area Managers also deliver:
Regional Compliance Services
- Contracts of Employment. The law states that every employee must be given a written set of terms and conditions within eight weeks of starting work. If you do not do this then you are breaking the law and will find yourself at a severe disadvantage if taken to an Employment Tribunal. For a standard fee, your Area Manager will work with you to produce tailored contracts of employment.
- Systems and Procedures Audits. Arguably, the most important item in your operation is your 'O' licence: lose this and you are out of business! Do you do everything that you should in order to comply with the conditions and undertakings of your 'O' licence? If VOSA arrived today to check your operation, would you pass with flying colours? For a standard fee, your Area Manager will carry out an in-depth audit of your operation and produce a detailed report together with recommendations and solutions covering any areas that need attention.
- Health & Safety Risk Assessments. All operators have a duty of care to their employees to ensure they are safe at work. By law, every operator must carry out a Risk Assessment and have a Health & Safety Policy. Have you done a full risk assessment on your operation? The problem arises when one of your employees is injured - at that stage the Health & Safety Executive will get involved and start asking a lot of questions. With no Health & Safety Policy or Risk Assessment in place, you are in deep trouble. The RHA offers a full package to ensure you are complying with the law.
Help Desks
Each Region has one or more Help Desks. These are the people to ring when you have a query or a problem. They have a wide range of knowledge and can answer most queries on the spot and even if they can't, they usually know someone who can.
Most of the time this involves giving speedy answers to immediate problems, so that you can get on with running your business. On average, they deal with some 50 calls per day, ranging from easy queries like confirming a member's interpretation of the drivers' hours regulations to more intricate ones like deciding if a lorry permanently fitted with grandstand seating is subject to the 'O' licensing regulations. Many queries are from owner drivers on their mobile phones who have a problem on the road and it is the Help Desk's task to get them off and running again.
Here are some of the types of query that our Help Desk operators get involved with on a daily basis:
- A member has a Yugoslavian artic in his yard with no driver. The Yugoslavian operator says the driver has walked off and can our member put one of his drivers on the lorry to run to Ancona, Italy, drop off the trailer and bring another one back to the UK. This raises all sorts of issues such as the employability of the UK driver, insurance, checking for illegal immigrants, how and where does he buy fuel and, last but not least, will he get paid by the Yugoslavian operator!!
- A member is summonsed for overloading at 40.8 tonnes on a 38 tonne lorry. The consigner stated that the load weighed 22 tonnes when in fact it weighed 25 tonnes. Fortunately, this is covered by LawPlan but the member still needs to supply all the supporting papers for his case. (Afternote - he got an absolute discharge).
- A member thought he could not complete a job without breaking the drivers' hours regulations. After discussing the possibility of taking a split daily rest, we agreed that he could finish the job and stay legal.
Remember - your Help Desk is only a phone call away.
Regional Administrative Staff
Behind the scenes, your Regional administrative staff:
- maintain the membership database and make sure your details are correct
- deal with RHA LawPlan claims
- organise hauliers' briefings, Sub-Region meetings and a host of other events
- provide the secretarial back-up
- liaise with the RHA's Business Partners
- take orders for the Hauliers Shop and other services
- ensure the smooth running of a vast range of services to members.
