RSA 'blacklists' lorry drivers

A 'BLACKLIST' of heavy goods vehicle companies who commit offences in Ireland and abroad, is being compiled by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) as part of a process to revoke the licences of rogue hauliers.

Details of the blacklist - officially a "risk rating register" - were contained in the RSA's annual report which was published on Monday. The report also revealed that in 2007 almost one-third of all vehicles checked by RSA inspectors in the Republic were found to be defective.

News of the blacklist comes as the UK's Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (Vosa) released statistics showing Irish-registered lorries were found, on a percentage basis, to be the most frequent foreign violators of regulations relating to driver hours. The Vosa statistics also found Irish-registered lorries were in second place for violations relating to trailers, in third place for overloading and in eighth place for violations relating to engines or "tractor" units.

The Department of Transport has never revoked a haulier's licence but since taking over enforcement two years ago, the RSA has arranged to have every violation detected by Vosa relayed to it. From January to October 2007, 289 HGV drivers were reported to have committed 1,015 offences relating to drivers' hours and tachographs while operating abroad. Some 95 per cent of these came from the UK and 5 per cent from other EU member states.

The RSA annual report said the authority was involved in legal action against 125 haulage companies. The authority also said it had doubled the number of its inspectors to 18 since assuming responsibility from the Department of Transport. According to the report, RSA inspectors participated in 111 multi-agency garda checkpoints in 2007 and inspected 2,087 vehicles; 717 were defective.

The RSA contacted over 2,126 operators in 2007 seeking details of the tachograph records; just over 50 per cent of them had responded by the end of the year.