Recently, London Freight Enforcement Partnership (LFEP) marked its second anniversary. The role of this organisation is to raise compliance standards across the freight industry to make sure London’s roads are safe for the public.
LFEP works in partnership with Transport of London (TFL), City of London Police, Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) and the Metropolitan Police Service. They target dangerously non-compliant drivers, vehicles and operators on the roads of London. The aim of this partnership is to try and make London’s air quality better, improve road safety, promote fairness within the trade and to reduce traffic congestion.
In a statement given by Leon Daniel, the managing director of TFL’s surface transport, he said that aim of these organisations working together, is to make London’s roads safe from dangerous freight operators, who have no regard for rules, regulations and safety. These partnerships help each other by sharing information to recognise the most unsafe freight operators. These are then prosecuted and referred to the independent traffic commissioners.
Since its launch two years ago, LFEP has stopped and checked more than 33000 HGVs. It has issued 9,114 fixed penalty notices and traffic offence reports. LFEP’s aim is to completely get rid of deaths and serious injuries caused by dangerous HGV drivers, by the year 2041. By working in collaboration with each other, these organisations have successfully arrested 106 people, seized 221 vehicles and revoked 12 operator licences. Apart from this, more than 5,600 mechanical prohibitions have been issued to operators with seriously defective vehicles.
The Freight Compliance unit happens to be the UK’s first multi-agency unit to use its intelligence to carry out targeted checks on road routes where freight operators are known to use bad driving practice.
There is no excuse for driving when tired, or with a mechanically defected vehicle or with an unstable load. These organisations plan to target careless drivers to completely eliminate road deaths and ensure a safer London for all.