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The Government has “slowed down” its introduction of a commercial vehicle operator licence scheme after resistance from businesses and organisations which run fleets.
Infrastructure Minister Tom Binet is now setting up a working group comprising industry representatives and government officials to find a solution, after he faced significant “disgruntlement” at a recent meeting, including from some parish officials, over the implications of bringing in the scheme.
States Members approved the scheme in February. It requires any operator of a commercial fleet with a gross vehicle weight of more than 3,500 kg to be licensed, and attaches various conditions to that licence, including the appointment of a ‘Transport Manager’ and periodic inspections.
Fleet operators have raised concern about the cost of implementing the scheme, including the possible need to employ and/or train more mechanics and upgrade workshops.
At a recent Scrutiny panel hearing, Deputy Binet revealed that he had decided to take a fresh approach to introducing the scheme.
Pictured: “What I have done is put things on hold," said the Infrastructure Minister.
He said: “This became a political issue when I had quite a few angry people phoning me and approaching me about it. So, we convened a meeting at St Clement’s Parish Hall and 17 people turned up. There was a lot of disgruntlement about the scheme."
He added: “What I have done is put things on hold. I have suggested that we form a Government representative team, consisting of two small operators, two medium and two large.
“The message has gone out for expressions of interest. There will be six people who we can refer to, who will be the elected industry representatives.
“We will discuss the scheme with them and see if we can find some sort of compromise that catches the people who need to be caught, delivers what we need to do from a legal point of view but is the lightest touch possible and is acceptable to the industry.
“So, we have slowed the process down and what we are trying to do is work with the industry directly to come up with a solution that we can live with from a technical point of view and they can live with from an operational point of view.”
This new position was praised by the Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Panel for being a “common sense” approach.
At the hearing, Deputy Binet also gave an update on the introduction of an MOT-style inspection regime for non-commercial road users, which the Government has committed to implement in order to comply with an international convention it has signed.
He said his team was still “cleansing” its database to provide an accurate picture of how many vehicles are on the road and he could not say what a vehicle testing regime might look like until that exercise had been completed.
The Vienna Convention states that any vehicle driving in the EU should undergo an annual inspection - something that happens in the UK but not in Jersey.
The panel put it to Deputy Binet that islanders driving in, for example, France could be told to come off the road by officials because their vehicles had not been inspected.
He replied: “There is that risk and my own preference is to try to set something up where vehicles that go on other people’s roads should meet other people’s standards.
“In the discussion we have had quite recently, it is apparent we would have to introduce a law that says no vehicle could leave the island without a test of that sort. I don’t know if that is true and how complicated it might be, and whether or not it is appropriate to do that, in any event.
“If there is a way of doing it practically as an interim measure, then that is what we’ll look at. It has just come to my attention that there are maybe complications around that.”
Deputy Binet has not yet specified on whether any vehicle inspections will be carried out at a central Government-run facility or by existing private-sector garages.
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Express previously sat down with DVS Head Gordon Forrest to discuss the plans for driving MOTs into Jersey...
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