The UK Freight Transport Association (FTA) has called on the Health and Safety C ...

The UK Freight Transport Association (FTA) has called on the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) to ‘see sense’ over the proposed regulation which will classify diesel as dangerous goods when being transported by road. The Association has written to HSC Chairman Bill Callaghan urging the Commission to take a pragmatic review of the new proposed regulations. While these new domestic regulations will align Britain on the transport of dangerous goods with the European ADR rules - as is required by a European Union Directive - and regulate the carriage of diesel as dangerous goods, ‘the cost impact for British industry will certainly outweigh the benefits’, according to the FTA. The Association estimates that over 1,400 plant, construction, road and rail infrastructure maintenance companies and public utilities will effectively become dangerous goods carriers. Being brought into scope will cost these sectors at least £75mn over the next ten years as they have to adopt new tank construction requirements, extra vehicle equipment and driver training. Chris MacRae, FTA’s Policy Manager for Dangerous Goods, commented: ‘FTA remains unconvinced that the Regulatory Impact Assessment which the HSE carried out has accurately reflected the massive costs and negligible safety benefits these regulations will have on British industry. There is no documented safety problem to justify this imposition of additional costs which could be better used on infrastructure improvement. ‘In addition to the equipment costs, workers brought into scope of the regulations will have to go on a three- or four-day approved dangerous goods driver training course and sit and pass written City & Guilds exams. If employees fail these exams they will be unable to continue in their employment.’ The FTA is also calling on the HSC to class all bowsers, new or old, as intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) as this would exempt all bowsers up to 1,000 litres of load from the worst effects of these new regulations. MacRae continued: ‘FTA has already been successful in gaining an exemption for existing bowsers from the tank construction and testing requirements of ADR. This allows existing bowsers to continue in use rather than being scrapped. To classify all existing bowsers as IBCs would make safety and operational sense and avoid an unbalanced cost and operational imposition on industry.’