Self Escorting Abnormal Loads and Abnormal Vehicles - RoSPA

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
Response to the Highways Agency Consultation Paper
“Proposed Code of Practice
Self-Escorting of Abnormal Loads and Abnormal Vehicles”
April 2004
4 Escort Person Specification
RoSPA Response
The Code of Practice defines two levels of ‘escort person’ :
• level 1 who have no powers to stop or direct traffic
• level 2 who will have an accreditation from a Police Constable to undertake the
traffic direction of other road users.
Comprehensive Job Descriptions for both posts are provided but RoSPA is
concerned that the route to achieve accreditation has not yet been fully defined.
Also, since this is a voluntary code of practice there are no enforcement measures in
place to ensure that recruits meet these criteria.
The Code states that it is the responsibility of hauliers or sub-contractors to satisfy
themselves that their own escort personnel are sufficiently competent to carry out
their duties. No doubt, in the event of an incident, the Police and/or HSE would
investigate whether escort personnel were competent. However, The Code should
include some mechanism for external checks without the need to wait for an incident
to occur.
5 Operation
RoSPA Response
RoSPA welcomes the requirement that the police abnormal load officer and the
haulier agree the numbers of escort vehicles and personnel on a case-by-case basis.
Escort persons are required to risk assess traffic and weather conditions, but this is
not included in the Job Descriptions included in the previous sections. RoSPA would
prefer to see this included in the job responsibilities to emphasise the importance of
this item.
In the case of breakdown, escort personnel are responsible for coning off the
abnormal loads or vehicle. Therefore, it would be appropriate to include a clause in
the job description that staff members are responsible for ensuring their own and
others’ safety.
There is little specific advice for escorts or the drivers of abnormal loads and vehicles
on how to perform in different types of road and traffic conditions. This means the
advice is somewhat vague and open to interpretation.
Escorting Criteria
The Code provides escorting criteria, which are for guidance only, and can be varied
by individual police forces. RoSPA would prefer to see basic standards for both
motorways and all other roads above which an escort must be provided. Many
abnormal loads need to be transported across police area boundaries and
differences between police forces could lead to confusion.
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