Recovery Members Update August 2010

Welcome to RHA Recovery Member Update!

We have held another RHA Recovery meeting this month and we have to sadly report that two committee members have resigned. Billy Calvert has been a stalwart on the committee for many years but increased work commitments and the large amount of travelling have forced him to reconsider his position on the committee and as a result Billy has resigned. So has Ian Richie, who has also had to resign for similar reasons.

The chairman has written to both, expressing the committee’s thanks for the hard work they have both put in over the years. On the good news front we welcome Keith Lowry from Davies Motors in Stafford on to the committee. Keith is a well-known figure in the industry, he has strong links with IVR and we feel his contribution will be invaluable on the committee.

We still have a vacancy on the committee if anyone is interested; please give me a call if you feel you can dedicate the time to the job. We meet six times a year but the committee is very active and we like our members to get involved in other areas such as the Survive committees.

Survive Executive Meeting

I am on the Survive Executive Committee and attended their meeting on August 17. It was a fairly busy meeting where it was decided to amalgamate two of their Working Groups making a total of three. RHA Recovery, as well as having their secretary on the Executive, has representative on all the Working Groups.

Life on the Edge - The Executive have decided not to look into the possibility of producing another Life on the Edge video this year because of the affects of the economic downturn and the increased costs of production.

Exemption of MOT on HGV’s – no results from the recent consultation to discuss, but there was a short discussion on ‘special vehicles’ and the way VOSA might test these vehicles which in most cases are too big for the present VOSA facilities.

Managed Motorways – the HA have all proposed Managed Motorway schemes under review because of the public spending cuts presently coming under review by government.

Dangerous Locations – The Survive Executive are asking their Working Groups to look at Dangerous Locations. Most of the major clubs have designated ‘dangerous locations’ but Survive would like to have a national database of these locations for the benefit of all independent operators. The ACPO representative was happy to liaise with the clubs and produce information they presently hold.

Website – The HA host the Survive website but due to the public spending cuts they have had to review their situation and therefore other web hosts are being sought.

HATO’s – Concerns have been expressed in Scotland over the activities of HATO’s where there is a recorded incident of HATO’s offering facilitated recovery under police schemes instead of allowing motorists to call their preferred recovery operator or club. The HA say their policy has not altered regarding instructions to HATO’s and they are not aware of any problems.

PAS 43 2010

The PAS 43:2010 document published in June has caused quite a stir. The Survive Working Group 2 published the document and sent it to the BSI for their accreditation. The Working Group 2 committee agreed to a maximum ceiling of around £35 from the previous figure of £28 but the BSI in their wisdom put the new figure at £50 and increase of approaching 100%.

We stated our concerns immediately and through the Working Group 2 committee made our concerns known the BSI. Other associations did the same as did David Bizley of the RAC. We are pleased to announce that the BSI have had a rethink on it and have now reduced the figure to £35 as prescribed by Working Group 2. Nobody likes to see the figures increase but I think we ended up getting as good a result as possible from the situation. RHA have a representative on Working Group 2, so well done to everyone.

I was at the Survive Executive Meeting and the decision of BSI to raise the fee to £50 was discussed and their decision to reduce the figure to £35 came immediately after the Executive meeting.

Dangerous Goods Act

The European agreement concerning carriage by road of dangerous goods (ADR) will be updated 1 January 2011. Operators get a six month period to adjust between ADR2009 and ADR2011 and there is a small change in the text which may affect recovery operators.

The current exemption which allows recovery operators to transport a vehicle carrying dangerous goods is shown on the attached document - section 1.1.3.1 (d). The actual wording being changed is highlighted and changes from 'a safe place' to 'the nearest appropriate safe place' - this means that operators cannot choose simply to have a vehicle recovered back to their originating depot when perhaps they have another location much closer that can deal with the vehicle and its load.

Please click here to view or download exemption

Tow Show

No decisions have been made regarding next year’s Tow Show. RHA are the sole owners of the show and discussions have taken place about next year’s show but as yet we have not made any decisions regarding the date and venue of next year’s show.

European Rescue & Recovery Initiative (ERRI)

A meeting took place last week where RHA Recovery was present. Good to report that AVRO have applied for re-admittance to ERRI and were duly co-opted on to the committee with two representatives present at last week’s meeting.

ERRI will soon be writing to stakeholders with their Strategy Document.

Member’s Briefings

We have discussed the possibility of having Member’s Regional Briefings and although I have nothing to report at the moment, I am working on coming up with a series of Regional Briefings in the second half of the year.
More on that soon.

New Members

We have signed up three new members this month.

Freight Transport APPG

The next meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Freight Transport will take place in October. I am on the committee as is Jack Semple of the RHA.

Contact me

We are currently recruiting members, if you are interested in joining RHA Recovery or would like information on what we can offer, please contact us at our Peterborough office. Janice Wadsworth will deal with your enquiry, she can be contacted on 01733 261131. Alternately you can call me direct, my mobile number is 07976 829927.