Commercial vehicle safety and security product company Viper Guard has launched an online petition asking the Home Office to increase its funding of TruckPol.
General Manager Debbie Jones said the petition was a response to fears that the Government was planning to axe its funding of the national intelligence and collating agency, which is part of the Association of Chief Police Officers’ Vehicle Crime & Intelligence Service.
The Home Office is supposed to match funding from private industry stakeholders including fleet operators and insurance companies. It only pays £50,000 towards Truckpol’s £130,000 annual budget, and Viper Guard speaks of rumours that the Home Office is planning to withdraw its funding altogether at the end of the current financial year.
“Vernon Coaker, the roads minister, assured us in his address to delegates at the Attacks on Drivers conference, that the Government takes commercial vehicle crime seriously, but it seems the Home Office doesn’t agree,” she said. “Hardly what you’d call joined-up Government!
“In these times of high fuel costs, trucks and haulage yards are increasingly being targeted by organised crime, and drivers are among the most exposed and vulnerable sections of the workforce.
“Crime prevention, and in particular the fight against organised crime, are Government functions, and it would be a disgrace to leave it to the transport industry to find the whole of TruckPol’s budget. We’re challenging the Home Office to put its money where its mouth is by increasing, not withdrawing, its funding of TruckPol.
“Every operator large and small and every individual driver can join our challenge to the Government’s parsimonious attitude by going to http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Truckpol/ and signing our petition, which will go direct to the Home Secretary.
“The Government is making a fortune out of higher fuel duty and VAT – it’s time it put some of that money back into the industry by making drivers’ lives on the road safer and more secure.” Deadline for signing the petition is 29 December.
Note – Viper Guard
It offers a range of commercial vehicle safety and security products including anti-siphon devices, trailer door locks, kingpin locks, coupling locks and gas alarms, driver’s cab accessories, Health & Safety and ADR equipment. The company was founded with the acquisition of vehicle security firm ProtekDor, familiar for its LokGard and KabGard cab locks, and is headed by ProtekDor co-founder Debbie Jones as General Manager working alongside Sales Manager Nick Blake and his team. Viper Guard’s range can be seen at –
