With news this week of a revised Operation Stack in place, I asked Nigel Grainger, a fleet risk expert, for his opinion:
I was asked by the editor of your Kent Blog to review this plan by Kent Police. I think that the idea is provisionally a rather good one, but the idea that the trucks will be parked in lane one of a dual carriageway with lane two running normally at fifty miles per hour is, quite frankly, rather foolish.
It is my opinion that the speed limit should be variable so that when Operation Stack is in place the speed limit can be dropped to 30 mph or even 20 mph.
The purpose of Operation Stack is to stockpile the trucks heading for the continent, these drivers will take the opportunity to have their statutory rest periods required by law.
Imagine then that these drivers awaken from their slumber and climb out of the passenger door of their truck (these may be left hand drive trucks) straight into the road where drivers are travelling at high speeds. I hope the Police will have a bit of a rethink here.
My thanks to Nigel of Fleet Risk Consultants. You may find his blog on Your Road Risk interesting too – it’s very active and plenty of useful information there – and he’s happy to answer questions too!