Leasedrive Velo Blog

It seems we are all being fattened up for the big chop. Talk of 25% cuts in government budgets on public spending have given way to news that departments are also being asked to prepare budgets for a second potential scenario, that of 40% cuts in government spending. Health and international aid are the only ring-fenced departments not due to suffer cuts and the likes of defence and education are due to be protected as far as possible. Guess which department will really be for the chop? Yes, Transport surprise, surprise. Apparently, road repairs are the only costs that are likely to remain unaffected but we’ll have to see about that.

Already comes news that £17.2 million will be cut from the road safety budget. This follows latest government statistics showing the number of deaths on Britain’s roads fell by 12% last year to a record low of 2222 in 2009, while child deaths fell from 124 to 81. Total casualties, including slight injuries, were 4% down. It is troubling to think that complacency may be creeping in on road safety at a time when the trend for fatalities is consistently downward.

Naturally, various organisations are up in arms over the news, led by road safety charity, Brake. However, as with other areas of government spending, Whitehall is looking at avoiding the prevalent duplication of activities by various departments and organisations. Such an approach would make natural sense but not at the expense of road safety.

The potential consequences of the deep cut in road safety budgets should cause considerable concern among fleet managers. As we all know, the benefits of proper risk management, including road safety, far outweigh the costs.

It’s not as if that, while road deaths are on the decline, our roads are the safest. Indeed, the UK is ranked only the fourth safest in Europe for its road network. The European Road Assessment Programme (EuroRAP), which rates the safety risk of roads in Europe, considers just 53% of the UK’s roads to be ‘low risk’.

The EuroRAP score assesses roads on how well their design protects users from death or disabling injury in the event of an accident with the safest awarded four stars.

In the UK, half of the motorways under the Highways Agency’s control achieved a four-star rating while 78% of dual carriageways were given a three-star rating. EuroRAP considers the protection offered if a vehicle runs off the road, the risk of a head-on collision and the safety of junctions.

Half of motorways do not protect users if they run off the road while for dual carriageways the figure is a high 90%. Ninety-seven per cent however do offer protection against head-on collisions. Single carriageways lacked the most safety features, 62% rated two stars.

According to EuroRAP our road safety network is just not consistent enough. For example, Scottish roads are twice as risky as roads in England and Wales and the safest country, Sweden, has managed to design single carriageways with safety records even higher than motorways, something believed not to be achievable.

Meanwhile, the Road Safety Foundation suggests that a lick of paint can work wonders. Fatal and serious collisions can be reduced by over 70% by improving road markings and signage, applying high-friction anti-skid treatments at known accident junction hot spots and generally improving the signage and layout of road junctions.

When the cake gets smaller, it is has to be sliced better. Prudent wielding of the knife does not necessarily mean deep cuts have to have the severe repercussions that may be first anticipated. Government and local councils ignore road safety at their peril. If they do and this results in a reversal of the downward trend in road deaths all fleet managers will have to step up to the plate and provide even better driver training and guidance to their ‘at work’ drivers.

Roddy Graham, Commercial Director

According to Surrey County Council, 536 gulley and drain covers have been stolen so far this year, creating even bigger hazards than the much-publicised potholes for drivers, motorcyclists and cyclists.

The replacement costs for the Council have so far amounted to over £160,000 with each cover costing between £200 and £400 to replace. The covers have been mainly stolen from rural areas, where presumably the thieves feel they are less likely to be spotted. It really beggar’s belief to what lengths some people will go to earn extra money. We all know about lead being stolen from church roofs and statues from gardens, but this is criminally dangerous.

The money Surrey County Council has so far spent could have filled 3000 potholes!

Make no mistake, such stories are only the tip of the iceberg as we totter on the edge of a double dip recession and face years of bleak financial austerity.

I’ve been complaining bitterly about the perilous state of our roads in these blogs for some time now, even suggesting that if things don’t improve we’ll all be driving around in four-wheel drive vehicles to cope with ever increasing uneven road surfaces. Well, I fear that as the size of the country’s deficit becomes ever crystal clear that our roads will be one of the first to suffer.

Much has been made in the past week of the coalition government’s intention to enter into consultation with the public on what needs to be cut by way of public expenditure.

It is drawing inspiration from Canada, whose government tackled its huge nine per cent national deficit by slashing federal budgets by 20 per cent over four years.

The Canadian Liberal government eliminated the deficit in just three years and, by 1999, the Canadian national debt had been cut dramatically from almost 70 per cent of national income to below 30 per cent! However, the government was helped by achieving this at a time of world prosperity, in stark contrast to current times.

The Canadians did it by undertaking proper planning, and consulted the public and public sector workers in decisions. It was described as a societal project.

The Canadian government scrutinised closely what it should look after and what could be taken care of by others. The biggest cuts came in agriculture, defence, transport and welfare. Many in the public sector were encouraged to take early retirement, a fifth of the total workforce in the end. An iconic image of the depth of the cuts was the demolition of a public sector hospital!

I mentioned where the axe fell hardest on public expenditure. At least three of the sectors should have sounded familiar, given this week’s reports. One is close to all of our hearts, namely transport. Expect draconian measures with major projects slashed. Work on the London cross-rail link may have started but my betting is on the high-speed rail link being one major casualty along with many planned road projects. Road surfaces will definitely be getting poorer not better. And VAT will go up, probably in the June 22 Budget.

Times are about to get a lot harder for all of us, and fleet will be no exception.

Roddy Graham, Commercial Director

So we got a hung Parliament after all, as predicted, and the first coalition Government since the Second World War. Who would have thought that we would have ended up with a Conservative/Liberal Democrat pact? The events of the past five days have been quite unprecedented with Nick Clegg very much the kingmaker. And what a kingmaker! After five days of talks, political U turns, he ends up with five LibDems in Cabinet and himself appointed Deputy Prime Minister. Definitely someone with political nous! So the parties that finished first and third will govern for the next five years while the runner-up Labour Party goes away to lick its wounds and appoint a new leader.

What can we make of all of this? Well, on first impressions, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats seem to be making all the right noises. New Prime Minister, the youngest at 43 since 1812, David Cameron has talked of collective responsibility and difficult decisions ahead. No illusions there then!

The country has watched in mild bemusement at the comings and goings in Whitehall wondering first whether a Conservative/LibDem pact was possible, then working out all the consequences to the nation of a rainbow Government only to go back to square one and assimilate a Liberal Democrat coup in gaining a stronger foothold in Government.

As all parties agree, difficult times are ahead. A fixed term Government of five years is a sensible move, avoiding the potential short-term opportunism so favoured by the City. Government, of whatever hue, is in for a fixed long-term period, subject to Constitutional change.

Major appointments have been confirmed – George Osborne as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Teresa May as Home Secretary and William Hague as Foreign Secretary.

The first is most likely to impact our sector. The youngest Chancellor for 125 years has the toughest of all jobs on his hands. The City would have preferred more experienced hands at the wheel than an unproven 38-year-old. Ken Clarke’s name had been bandied around but he is Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor. The nation’s financial favourite, who warned of the crash and produced a best-selling book on the financial crisis, Vince Cable, will have the remit of Business Secretary. At least he will be pushing hard for the banks to lend more, stimulating business in general. How the young Turk and wise owl will get on is anyone’s guess but subtle guidance behind the scenes can be no bad thing if only to keep things in check and on the right course.

What we do know from the formal coalition is that the new Government will proceed with the Conservatives planned public expenditure cuts of £6bn this tax year. Counter to the Liberal Democrats stance, and the Labour Party’s even stronger position on the matter, this move could risk jeopardizing the fragile recovery but the financial institutions are looking for tough moves now.

Chris Huhne is the new Climate Change and Environment Secretary, a welcome appointment as the Liberal Democrats demonstrated themselves greener than the Tories in their election manifesto. Climate change is a key issue for this country, this Government and our own sector. A continuation of the CO2 -based taxation regime is expected and worthy. And both parties are backing the high speed rail network link and an electric and plug-in hybrid national recharging network.

New Transport Secretary Philip Hammond needs to grasp the problem once and for all. We need Government to have a vision for the future. A fully integrated transport policy is the minimum we should expect.

For the moment, we have a ‘Politicians’ Parliament’ not a ‘People’s Parliament’. It’s something we are going to have to get used to, at least for the next four years. The referendum on the alternative vote will dictate whether we like the new style of coalition Government. Liberal Democrats take heed. How you behave over the coming five years will determine your long-term political future. And let’s hope the right wing Tories toe the line too. A lot is at stake and, as Cameron states, we have a collective responsibility.

Roddy Graham, Commercial Director

By the time you read this you will have cast your vote. So will I although, before you come to any conclusions as to my political persuasion, I have voted for different colours in the past and I always vote with due diligence. I download and read the manifestos and take my voting right extremely seriously. It seems more of the country is doing so too, perhaps stimulated by the new TV debates. However, my disgust of most MPs remains. As far as I’m concerned they are as bad as each other. A hung Parliament? That would suit me fine but there are probably not enough lamp-posts in Parliament Square!

My cynicism for most MPs should come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog. After all, I long ago jumped on the anti-sleaze bandwagon and exposed the expensesgate scandal for what it was, a scandal.

Interestingly, in the run up to this election, we have seen a few changes – live television debates, a swing to the LibDems. We’ve also witnessed a few howlers – Gordon Brown ‘off-camera’ but ‘on mike’ labelling Rochdale lifetime Labour voter, Gillian Duffy, “a bigot” and David Cameron throwing away what seemed an insurmountable lead just a few months ago. It was the Tories to lose and, if you read this late, it might turn out to be the case. For the moment, as I write this, all bets are off. There are apparently, according to polls, 38 per cent of voters still undecided. Does that mean they are thinking of voting with their brain or their heart?

What I can tell you, whether you are red, blue, orange, green or a hue in between, is that we haven’t seen much debate on the environment, even as some distant volcano continues to spew its volcanic ash into our air space, threatening our economic revival. Eighty per cent of the travel industry was affected by the airport shutdown last time around. Bets must be on on a few air carriers going under if that is repeated on a regular basis. You would have thought dark clouds on the northern horizon would have prompted debate on pollution closer to home!

More importantly, from a fleet management perspective, we haven’t seen much debate on an integrated transport system. Indeed if, of all miracles, a Labour Party should cling on to power, you can be sure that with all the harsh public spending cutbacks that will inevitably be introduced by whatever party that gets elected into government, the proposed high speed rail link will at best be postponed, if not canned. While Labour has been good in basing its vehicle taxation policy on a CO2 based tax regime, its overall carbon offset record has not been so good and its ability to pull together a truly integrated transport policy abysmal. John ‘Two Jags’ Prescott came closest with a pronouncement and that was as close as it got, a pronouncement.

Indeed, pronouncement could almost be a by-word for the current Government (the Labour one in power as I write this!). All pronouncements and no substance! You couldn’t argue with half of what Gordon Brown said in the last television debate, the problem was that the Labour Party had been saying much the same thing for the past 13 years.

So, whoever gets/got in, I hope for one thing. Action not words. And for one day a Government in power with an integrated transport vision!

Roddy Graham, Commercial Director

Glad to see government is getting heavy on penalties on a number of fronts.

First was the news last month that the Sentencing Guidelines Council has issued penalty guidelines relating to those found guilty under the UK Corporate Manslaughter (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and Corporate Homicide (Scotland) Act or Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

Under the former, a work-related road death will result in an organisation being fined rarely less than half a million pounds and more likely several million pounds.

Under the latter, the fine will be seldom less than £100,000 and more likely several hundred thousand pounds.

All we need now is for relevant prosecutions to take place and heavy fines imposed for the message on duty of care to be really driven home.

Being stuck in a traffic jam is never fun but when the roadworks overrun their due finish date, drivers have every reason to fume behind the wheel. However, up to now there has been little real incentive for contractors to get on with the job and finish on time. Certainly, not in financial penalty terms.

That’s all about to change with those contractors flagrantly breaching their obligations facing a tenfold increase in penalties from a daily charge of £2,500 to a whopping £25,000 per day.

According to the government, road works cost the economy £4.2 billion per year. Many of these are the result of utility companies digging up the road and government is keen for them to finish on time or face the consequences. They won’t even be allowed to pass on the cost of any fines on to consumers either.

At the same time, local councils are being given extra powers to charge utility companies for inspecting the progress and completion of road works. Again, with the chance of being charged for additional inspections, following poor rectification work, perhaps we’ll start seeing better road surface repairs with proper sealing and matching of surface levels.

Currently, in addition to having to zigzag between potholes, we have to contend with bouncing over uneven road surfaces as the result of poor road repairs.

With councils hard pressed to find emergency funds for ‘winter’ road repairs, perhaps utility companies should face the costs of resurfacing the whole road in which they have dug a channel. That way at least all road users would be guaranteed an even surface on which to travel and councils’ road repair bills would be reduced. After all, the utility companies have plenty of money in their own coffers!