DfT issues update on secure truck parking
The Department for Transport (DfT) has said it is looking into the provision of additional and more secure truck parking capacity in England, with grants expected to be announced shortly.
The news follows a roundtable with the freight sector on 12 July led by Greg Smith MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Road Freight and Logistics.
At a transport questions session in the House of Commons the following day, Mr Smith asked the DfT what it was “doing with the sector to ensure that for the extortionate fees freight companies are charged, they get secure parking overnight?”
Responding for the government, the roads minister Richard Holden said: “We are looking in depth at driver welfare, including providing extra lorry parks and more secure facilities, and grants are due to be announced in the summer.”
According to the Road Haulage Association (RHA), the APPG held discussions over whether a legal definition of safe and secure parking could help lower insurance premiums in freight crime scenarios.
Police, truckstop operators, hauliers and security service providers were present at the meeting, during which insurers reportedly advised that, while it was possible that mandating parking in secure areas for higher value loads could help lower premiums, at present there was no widely accepted UK standard of safe and secure parking.
The targeting of trucks and drivers by criminal gangs has been estimated to cost the UK economy £250 million per year, with national policing unit NaVCIS reporting 5,086 cargo theft incidents in 2022.
The renewed calls for secure parking for HGVs follow the publication in June of the second part of the Department for Transport’s 2022 national survey of lorry parking which found that, on the routes covered, overnight usage of on-site truck parking facilities was at critical level, having hit 87 per cent last year.
The government has taken some steps towards addressing the problem; last November, Minister Holden announced an investment by government and industry of up to £100 million to improve roadside facilities, in a scheme under which operators of truck stops and roadside services could bid for a portion of £52.5 million ‘match-funded’ government investment.
“Everyone should feel safe when they’re at work, and commercial vehicle drivers are no different,” said RHA public affairs manager Ashton Cull.
“But we still hear horrendous stories of drivers being targeted by organised crime gangs for their fuel and cargo.
“This is why we’re pushing for more safe and secure parking facilities, and for a specific freight crime category which will help the authorities and industry better understand how to tackle it.”
The Road Haulage Association (RHA) has told the Department for Transport (DfT) that improved and more secure lorry parking is “vital for driver wellbeing, freight crime reduction and road safety”.
Mr Cull said that drivers deserved to have access to safe and secure parking, and better roadside facilities.
“This is not just a question of the working conditions of key economic workers – this is also about the perceptions of the industry, reducing freight crime, and ultimately, road safety,” he said.
Citing RHA’s estimate of a shortage of 11,000 safe and secure truck parking spaces, the organisation also reiterated its call for government to work with industry to amend planning guidance and identify areas in greatest need of more parking spaces.
“Action to improve standards must go hand in hand with action to increase the number of spaces if it is going to have any real effect,” Ashton Cull added.
