Up to 60 per cent of foreign lorries are unsafe

MPs have highlighted the danger posed by overseas-registered lorries on British roads and called for changes in the law to protect other road users.

The Transport Select Committee revealed that many these heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) from abroad are unroadworthy and their drivers are more likely than their British counterparts to have been at the wheel for longer than the legal maximum of 10 hours a day.

Sixty per cent of HGVs from the Czech Republic stopped on British roads in 2007-8 were found to be unroadworthy, and over half the Polish and Hungarian lorries, and four in ten of Belgian, German and Italian trucks were found to be unfit for the road.

A spokesperson for the Environmental Transport Association (ETA) said: “For the most part the lorries that are unsafe have travelled through at least one other European country before arriving here so the under policing of this group may be widespread.”

“Foreign-registered lorries are over-represented in crashes on British roads – the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA), which polices the haulage industry, needs the legal right to enter ports to carry out safety checks on lorries before they get onto Britain’s roads.”