Majority of hauliers comply with legislation, says body

THE Irish Road Haulage Association is satisfied that the vast majority of hauliers on Irish roads are compliant with legislation governing vehicle safety, drivers’ hours and overloading.

It follows the revelation by the Irish Examiner that one of the country’s largest haulage firms — Nolan Transport of New Ross, Co Wexford — was refused an operating licence in Britain earlier this month over its poor record after more than 4,000 breaches of traffic and vehicle safety legislation were recorded against its drivers and vehicles over the past five years.

The Road Safety Authority has refused to confirm or deny that Nolan — which is not a member of the IRHA — is on its high-risk register for targeting hauliers believed to have a poor compliance record with legislation governing heavy good vehicles.

The IRHA also refused to comment on the ruling against Nolan Transport by a British traffic commissioner, which accused the company of jeopardising “both road safety and the need for level playing field with competitors”.

However, IRHA president Vincent Caulfield said the level of compliance with haulage legislation as well as the overall standard of heavy goods vehicles was continuously improving over recent years.

Mr Caulfield admitted there were historical problems with incidents of overloading of vehicles and breaches of limits on driving hours.

He also observed that British transport authorities were more strict than many of their EU counterparts in enforcing various rules affecting hauliers. But Mr Caulfield said he was surprised the IRHA’s sister representative body in Britain, the Road Haulage Association, had objected to Nolan being granted a licence.

The traffic commissioner said that Nolan’s reaction to the number of breaches recorded against its vehicles showed a commitment that “falls short of the minimum standard required in Britain”.

He pointed out that any British haulier with a similar record to Nolan would have had their licence revoked.

However, company director, Richard Nolan, claims that only 0.2% of journeys covered by Nolan vehicles were found to be in breach of transport legislation.

But a report issued by the traffic commissioner showed non-compliance rates of between 20% with drivers’ hours rules and 51% with trailer standards during inspections.

Nolan’s was also criticised for parking HGVs overnight unlit and in locations where they would have been subject to fines if they had operated under a British licence.

Last month, a Latvian driver working for Nolan Transport was caught driving a 42-tonne truck in south Wales while almost four times over the legal drink driving limit. The 62-year-old trucker was jailed for six weeks.

In 2009, another Nolan driver was fined €1,500 and given a three-year driving ban after pleading guilty to charges of failing to secure a load, having no certificate of road-worthiness and operating an unlicensed trailer over his role in a collision which killed two women including the wife of Kilkenny hurling goalkeeper James McGarry.