VOSA: cabotage penalties 'difficult to enforce'

VOSA has admitted that graduated fixed penalties for non-UK hauliers undertaking illegal cabotage are difficult to enforce and it is working with the Department for Transport (DfT) to agree on the best approach.

Under the new rules for cabotage, which will not come into force until January 2010 - six months after the formal adoption and publication of the European Parliament's Access to the Market Regulation - hauliers will be able to carry three domestic loads abroad in seven days.

As of 1 April, VOSA, alongside the police, has been able to issue a variety of penalties to domestic and foreign hauliers, including a £200 fine for non-UK hauliers undertaking illegal cabotage.

A spokeswoman for VOSA tells Commercial Motor: "With regard to the future cabotage enforcement strategy, VOSA is about to begin discussions with DfT with a view to agreeing the best approach. It is anticipated, therefore, that an enforcement strategy will be in place well in advance of the new rules coming into force.

"As far as fines are concerned, the new £200 fine under the graduated fixed penalties scheme already applies (since 1 April) to non-UK hauliers undertaking illegal cabotage under the current rules (although these are difficult to enforce, as we know) and will continu to do so under the new rules (which should be easier to enforce)," she adds.

Fears have been calmed that a liberalisation of cabotage rules will lead to a swathe of Eastern European operators coming to the UK to compete for domestic loads using trucks running on lower operating costs.

One source, that did not want to be named, believed that economic conditions throughout Europe would temper cabotage under the three-in-seven rule and it would not see a huge volume of Eastern European trucks entering the UK.

Issued 23rd April 2009