Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, acting on behalf of the Chambers of Commerce North West, is launching a Freight Crime Initiative and Truck Watch.
The launch of the scheme will be marked by a free event at Haydock Racecourse on Thursday, October 2, hosted by Liverpool Labour MP and chair of the Government’s Transport Select Committee, Louise Ellman. The Liverpool Chamber of Commerce’s Business Crime Direct team is to establish the Freight Crime Initiative and Truck Watch with the national Truckpol initiative and regional police forces. This follows similar schemes in the West Midlands (featured last issue), Yorkshire and Humberside. Truck Watch aims to provide an intelligence network of hot news, names of offenders, crime locations and stolen vehicle satellite tracking.
Peter Jones, Manager of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce’s Business Crime Direct team, said: "Freight crime is a serious danger to the livelihoods of haulage companies across the region. Around 3,000 heavy goods vehicles go missing nationally every year, often never to be recovered, representing an insurance value of around £1billion. From January to March 2006, the Road Haulage Association reported that the combined loss of vehicles reported stolen nationwide was in excess of £26m and that the violent hijacking of vehicles was on the increase. The success of the Truck Watch scheme in other areas of the country has been very promising. We hope to bring that success to the North West and provide an efficient crime prevention network for local hauliers."
The North West launch event will act as an exhibition and showcase for the Truck Watch initiative and all of the surrounding issues involved. A Q&A session and the chance for Merseyside haulage firms to enrol on the scheme will follow.
Anyone wishing to attend the event should contact Collette or Joanne at Business Crime Direct on 0151 224 1859.
