FLEET MANAGEMENT SAFETY
Coordinated approach to improve safety on major roads network As a week-long, multi-agency operation to improve safety on the M6 commences, Dan Gilkes takes a ride in one of Highways England’s Operation Tramline trucks.
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t’s a sinking feeling in the stomach that nobody wants to feel. You glance in the mirror and there are the flashing blue lights coming up fast behind you. You indicate left and pull over, hoping that the speeding bike or plain clothes BMW is rushing after someone else. But no, it draws alongside and the officer indicates that it’s you they are after and the ‘Follow Me’ sign comes on across the rear windscreen. How did they know to come after you? Where were they when they saw you? You probably didn’t even notice the plain white DAF truck that filmed your every move a few minutes before. Welcome to Operation Tramline, Highways England’s countrywide initiative to improve safety on the major road network. Highways England has three of these white DAF tractor units, in the North, the Midlands and the South, that it provides to police forces across the country for various safety and training operations. Equipped with 360° cameras, and with a hand-held camera in the passenger seat, the trucks do have some discreet blue lights in the front grille, though it is rare that they would ever physically stop anyone. They are also de-restricted, so that they can easily pull alongside other trucks and pass them, while peering into the cab and seeing exactly what the driver is up to. Operation Tramline is not just about catching truck drivers however, as the cameras can see all around, they are also looking at all other road users, in particular vans. Trailers are also of particular interest, with poorly secured loads as well as running overweight among the problems. 16 VANUSER • JUNE 2021
For a week in May, one truck was loaned to Warwickshire Police, to be used as part of Operation Vertebrae, working a section of the M6 to either side of the Corley Services, near Junction 3. Running up and down a short section of the motorway, with a team of plain BMW interceptor cars and motorbikes following a few miles behind, the officers on board were pulling in anything that looked dangerous or suspicious. As the vehicles arrived at Corley, they were greeted by a multi-agency
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One long wheelbase 3.5-tonne VW Crafter tipped the scales at 4.8-tonnes
operation. This included DVSA, the HSE, HMRC, Immigration and Border Control officers. Warwickshire Police had brought a set of mobile weighpads to the event and the majority of the vans were sent straight to be weighed. Within hours, a growing park of vehicles stood waiting for colleagues to come and take some of the load off their vans, before they could continue their journey, as the drivers took receipt of a variety of paperwork from the various agencies. How overloaded were they? One long wheelbase 3.5-tonne VW Crafter that was obviously dragging on the ground, tipped the scales at 4.8-tonnes. It was not the only one. There are around 66,000 incidents on the M6 each year, of which 4,000 involve collisions. Since its launch in 2015, Operation Tramline has stopped almost 21,000 vehicles. VanUser took a ride in the truck with driver PC Mark Russell and camera spotter PC Jamie Blood, to see first-hand what is happening on the motorway. “Our intention is to use a covert LGV on the network to observe normal use,” said PC Russell. “We are not there just to catch truck drivers. I would much rather catch nobody. We
That sinking feeling as the Follow Me lights come on (bottom left); PC Russell and PC Blood with the Operation Tramline DAF (below centre); flatpack furniture is pretty heavy, as this Sprinter shows (bottom right)
