Police review British crane embargoes

Mobile crane rental companies in the UK welcome a review of the guidance for policing road travel embargoes. Photo: National Highways

British mobile crane rental companies are looking forward to the publication of new guidance on the policing of movements of their machinery on the roads, writes Phil Bishop.

In many parts of the UK – the Midlands in particular – mobile crane rental companies have been targeted by police forces imposing tighter rules on when cranes can use the roads and being stricter about enforcing them.

The need for rules governing the movement of abnormal loads (See note below) is well understood – both to maintain traffic flow and to protect vulnerable structures – but the rental companies have come to feel that too little consideration is being given by police to the practicalities of crane operation and the needs of their clients.

There are 45 regional police forces across the UK, each with discretion to enforce its own abnormal load transport embargoes, so the exact rules vary from region to region.

Times of travel

In much of the country mobile cranes are no longer allowed on the roads between 07.00 and 09.00 or between 16.00 and 18.00. In other places, the embargo of crane movements may run from 06.00 to 10.00 and between 15.30 and 20.00.

In practice, this means that a crane has to arrive on site before 06.00 and either be back in the depot before 15.30 or, more usually, wait until mid-evening before heading back for home.

The growth of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras means that anyone just minutes late will be automatically sent a prosecution notice.

If your crane breaks down on the way to site, you will be prosecuted. And you can’t send the customer a replacement because the advance paperwork has to name a specific vehicle. And if you mistype the vehicle registration on the paperwork, you will be done for that too.

This is quite a logistics headache for the rental companies, who already also have to submit notifications to the highway authorities, railways, canals and police three days ahead of putting a crane on the road. But more than that, it is imposing enormous pressure on operators, working longer days and occasionally facing personal harassment from police for just going about their job.

Some police forces give some leeway; others don’t.

A minefield of complication

That different regions have different rules and attitudes makes it even more complicated for those with fleets that need to cross police force borders.

Tammy England, a lift planner who runs Staffordshire-based Pride Safety Services in the Midlands, says, “The police do not understand that their actions are having a direct effect on the ability to continue to trade.” She said they “don’t really care if it has a detrimental effect on business or on employees’ mental health, or effectively makes our roads unsafe due to the additional hours being worked.”

She adds, “I really can’t see that the enforcement is proportionate in terms of costs, resources, time, and stress on all parties, including the police, and actual reduction in congestion must be negligible.”

Trevor Jepson, owner of London area-based City Lifting, tells of an instance where one of his cranes had used the wrong entrance at a construction site. The travel embargo meant the operator had to wait until the next day just to drive out and back in again through the next gate.

Some police forces are more flexible than others. Gwent Police in South Wales has lifted travel embargo restrictions for cranes up to the 80 tonne capacity class.

Reviewing the guidance

After representations from industry trade associations, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) has agreed to look again at the guidance that it gives to the regional forces. It is working with the College of Policing, industry and other stakeholders to review the 2010 Guidance on the movement of abnormal indivisible loads. The aim is to publish new guidance by the end of the year to bring greater consistency to embargo times and to the policing of abnormal loads.

Chief superintendent Marc Clothier is National Police Chiefs’ Council operational lead for roads policing. He says, “Policing’s primary responsibility is the safety of our communities and in respect of provisions for abnormal loads, this is to ensure the safety of all road users. Wherever possible we strive to balance safety with the needs and time pressures of the haulage industry and work closely with our partners to achieve this.

“We are reviewing the available national guidance to bring it up to date and provide a foundation for consistency between police forces, while recognising that every force is operationally independent and as such is responsible for their local decision making.”

The Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) is planning a survey of its crane hire members to gather data to feed into the review. Problems with abnormal load transport embargoes is also on the agenda for a meeting of the CPA Crane Interest Group on 12 September at the Vertikal Days trade fair in Newark, Notts.

Tammy England knows what the crane rental industry is hoping for, eventually. “We would ideally like to see cranes of five-axles and below being removed from the confines of the embargo, so that we can move at suitable times and continue to offer our clients the services they need.” she says.

That, however, might take longer to achieve.