The Traffic Commissioners have acknowledged the changing nature of the logistics industry with proposed amendments to the Senior Traffic Commissioner’s Statutory Guidance and Directions, the Freight Transport Association says.
James Firth, FTA’s head of licensing policy and compliance information, said: “The current operator licensing legislation fits a model where a haulage company has a yard with some trucks in it, and an office with a person called a transport manager who has a filing cabinet. But the further a logistics operation moves away from that model – and the more sophisticated it becomes – the less straightforward it is for that operator to prove their compliance with the law as it is written.”
The amendments recognise the changing nature of the role of the Transport Manager, outlining behaviours expected, with a far greater emphasis on managing systems which ensure compliance rather than carrying out specific tasks themselves.
