It was officially announced that the Freight Transport Association (FTA) is pressing VOSA to adopt a more pragmatic approach to enforcing sideguard rules.

In 2007, VOSA announced a more rigorous enforcement due to start in April 2008, but soon after the FTA intervened and explained the retrofit difficulties on about 15,000 crane-equipped vehicles, thus the date was deferred.

The Freight Transport Association has worked with crane-makers and bodywork builders to submit alternative proposals to VOSA and the DfT, suggesting that any changes ought to apply only to new vehicles. As VOSA has not responded, it appears to indicate that any proposed changes may have a long lead time.

Nonetheless, Graham Bellman, Group Transport Manager at Travis Perkins, and a founder member of the FTA builders’ merchants transport working group, claims that there is absolutely no statistical evidence of increased injury rates caused by a gap in the sideguards, necessitated by a front-mounted and self-loading crane.

The members of the working group operate about 3,500 HGVs with cranes, and therefore, the cost of altering existing sideguards (or mainly the top rail) would, for Travis Perkins alone, be about £1 million.  The FTA group wants the previous enforcement practices continued until the end of the current vehicle’s working life. Also, the FTA working groups points out that all new purchases will adhere to requirements.