The Scottish Plant Owners Association (SPOA) is leading the charge in drafting guidance to help reduce the number of bridge strikes involving HGVs transporting equipment.
At a recent summit of transport and industry bodies, Transport Scotland revealed that 50% of bridge strikes in Scotland involved plant being moved on low loaders. The group also identified a lack of best practice at avoiding bridge strikes.
Present were Transport Scotland and Police Scotland. SPOA members AB2K, Blackwood Plant Hire, GAP Group and WH Malcolm attended, too, and insurance company QBE Insurance Group and loss adjuster Sedgwick. Also there was Network Rail, which itself runs campaigns aimed at reducing bridge strikes (link opens in new tab). One such campaign revealed that 43% of lorry drivers don’t measure their vehicles before departure; and 52% do not take low rail bridges into account.
SPOA will produce draft guidance to share with interested parties for further development.
