The President of the Freight Transport Association has called on the Government to provide increased investment in VOSA - the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency - to increase enforcement and to further reduce the activities of the offending minority.

John Russell, President of FTA and Chairman of John G Russell (Transport) Ltd of Glasgow, was speaking at the Annual Dinner of the Association in London on Tuesday (8 November).

Mr Russell said, "I am passionate about road safety and about the high standards which my company and most other businesses set. I am passionate and proud of the UK's world leading record on quality and safety.

"But I am angry that a small minority of operators and drivers are determined to break the rules and that the system of enforcement allows them to get away with it.

"The vast majority of operators work very hard to comply because they want to, not from fear of detection. VOSA has limited resources - insufficient to meet the needs.

"As a responsible operator, I am not prepared to let our efforts be tarnished by a small minority who do not care. I want to see three things happen:

• There must be no place in our industry for operators and drivers who flout the law. The responsible industry has a duty to give the cowboys no quarter and, importantly, no work. Ultimately we are responsible for the safety of our businesses, our customers and our employees.
• There must be no place to hide on the road for operators and drivers who flout the law. This is about resources. Every port and every trade route must have permanent enforcement sites. The use of automatic number plate readers must be the norm, not the exception. Our HGV testing stations should be landmarks of state of the art technology, giving the users efficiency and accuracy. But we are struggling to drag our test station network into the 21st century from the 1960s when most of them last saw the builders. Sadly all of this costs money and the only resources VOSA has are those that can be squeezed out of licensing fees. Getting enforcement right must be a prime Government responsibility, and FTA is telling them so.
• There must be no place to hide for unfit vehicles or illegal drivers wherever they come from. One feature of the UK system that helps VOSA is the extensive data available at the roadside to enforcement staff. They can see driver and vehicle history in real time - but only if you are British!  The records of visiting vehicles and drivers are invisible to VOSA. Why? Because we have made a good job of facilitating the movement of trade and freight around 25 EU states but a terrible job of moving data and information. The Road Safety Bill currently in Parliament will help by introducing fixed penalties on non-residents, but you have to catch them first! This is one area which has not seen the IT revolution and it is a disgraceful omission.

"Illegally operated lorries and their drivers are not only a road safety hazard but unfair competition. A poorly maintained vehicle is also likely to be guilty of flouting other requirements while the legitimate industry pays a high price to remain compliant.

"This industry delivers the fourth largest economy in the world - we are entitled to a standard of safety and operating enforcement which protects the legal operator and hunts down the illegal, and the Government should be investing sufficient resources into VOSA to allow them to do that.