Drivers could be faced with pay-per-mile road charging and other fresh levies to plug a £40 billion financial black hole caused by the mass advent of electric cars, which are currently exempt from road tax and generate no fuel duty revenue.
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“B” is for Bad Weather and Not Brexit In October?
Through the weekend and into next week it looks like heavy rain at times and strong winds, it stays wet and windy until the end of Wednesday.
Then comes the cold with temperatures are set to sink below freezing in Scotland by the middle of the month.
That means odds on a white Christmas are sure to be slashed with conditions set to get much worse in 2020.
Drivers will face a life sentence in jail
Drivers who cause death when looking at their mobile phoneswill face life in jail for the first time under Government plans to be revealed on Monday.
In a major hardening of sentencing guidelines, ministers will propose raising the upper limit of imprisonment for dangerous drivers who kill from 14 years to a lifetime.
It is designed to send a “clear message” that people who cause “immeasurable pain” to families with reckless driving should be given a “punishment that fits the crime”.
Smart motorways decreasing passenger’s safety
Breaking down in a live lane on an all-lane-running (ALR) section of a ‘digital road’ – more commonly known as a smart motorway – is over 200% more dangerous than doing so on a conventional motorway with a hard shoulder, a damning report by the organisation responsible for running motorways has revealed.
Basic Operating Skills Test for Pallet & Stacker Trucks
The Accrediting Bodies Association for Workplace Transport (ABA) has released its newly developed Basic Operating Skills Test for Rider & Pedestrian Operated Pallet/Stacker Trucks (‘A’ category trucks).
The new testing standards cover the following ABA truck categories: A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6 and A7.
You can use the new test straight away if you wish, but is mandatory from 1st December 2019.
Using hands-free mobile phones while driving could be banned under new plans
Drivers could be banned from using hands-free mobile phones under plans outlined by MPs today.
Stiffer penalties, more enforcement by police and better education are needed to tackle motorists using devices behind the wheel, according to the Commons Transport Committee.
The Government should act to prevent the “entirely avoidable” tragedy of deaths and serious injuries from crashes caused by irresponsible drivers on the phone, it says in a 25-page report published today.
Smuggler Hides Asylum Seekers In Back Of Refrigerated Truck
A gang ringleader has been jailed for smuggling hundreds of migrants, including children, into Britain inside refrigerated lorries. Alket Dauti, a UK-based Albanian, worked with corrupt lorry drivers to bring people into the country illegally via the Channel ports.
He was arrested in June at his home in Penge, south-east London, as part of a joint UK-Belgian investigation into organised crime.
The 31-year-old was convicted in his absence by a court in Belgium last month and has now been sent there to serve his ten year sentence and also been fined £625,000.
Two other men, described as his 'lieutenants', were Sentenced to eight years each and await extradition. Belgian prosecutors believe the gang made hundreds of attempts to smuggle migrants into the UK.
Only some were stopped by the Border Force. The National Crime Agency's Andrea Wilson said: 'Dauti treated desperate migrants as commodities he could make money from. He was perfectly happy to risk their lives on incredibly dangerous journeys in the backs of lorries.'
She added: 'Through our close working with the Belgian Federal Police and prosecutors, we have taken out a significant organised crime group involved in bringing migrants to the UK illegally. Dauti was head of that group.'