There’s a European-wide survey on attacks on truck drivers as part of a wider study on the growing security problem of crimes against international heavy goods vehicle (HGV) traffic.
Can you help?
The European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) and the International Road Transport Union (IRU) announced the survey recently. Jack Short, Secretary General ECMT, said: "Crime against commercial vehicles, including attacks on truck drivers, is a growing problem and we need to understand better its human and economic costs. By questioning thousands of drivers from across Europe and Asia about attacks, we will gather valuable information which will help governments and transport operators to put in place targeted measures to counter this type of criminal activity more effectively."
Martin Marmy, Secretary General, IRU, said: "This study is good example of a public-private partnership, bringing the political influence of the ECMT and the global network of IRU Members to bear on the problem of criminals causing serious harm to international road transport, which is an integral part of modern just-in-time production. This is an important issue for society, as any penalty on road transport will always result in an even greater penalty for the economy as a whole."
The survey questionnaire can be obtained from participating IRU member associations. Links to their internet sites will be contained in a truck driver attack survey information page on the IRU website www.iru.org. The questionnaire is also available from the ECMT web site www.cemt.org
To make the study as representative as possible, every international HGV driver who has experienced an attack, or his/her manager, should complete the questionnaire. Drivers and managers who have not suffered an attack should also reply to questions about security measures employed by road transport companies.
The man doing the survey is a Briton, Frank Heinrich-Jones, a transport security consultant. A study last year presented the results of a small pilot study into attacks on truck drivers in the UK. The study indicated that one in six drivers interviewed had suffered an attack during the previous three years; more than 90pc of cabs were locked at the time of the attack and the majority happened during the evening or at night.. It is thought that 70pc of the attacks are at motorway service areas or truck stops. In a sign of the international nature of trucking – and the difficulty of policing it across borders – more than half of the attacked drivers did not call the police, citing language barriers as one of the reasons.
For more details or to carry out the survey, visit the website http://www.iru.org/SurveyOL/Survey.E.html
This contains full details of the study and electronic versions of the questionnaire (also in French, German and Russian).
Frank told Professional Security that the study will seek to identify best prevention measurers, health and safety considerations and any possible legal implications for drivers and transport companies. The research will also specifically investigate gas attacks on drivers, identify wherever possible the types of gas used, symptoms suffered and the means to independently verify such attacks. It is anticipated that "hot spots" areas will also be identified along with trends and patterns that may exist across Europe.
Strictly confidential
He stressed that data collected will be kept and processed in a strictly confidential way. Respondents have the choice to remain anonymous if they wish. No individual response will be published or released to third parties.
