Logistics: Bite-Size Insights - February 2025

In this edition of Logistics: Bite-Size Insights, we highlight the important detail around the new safety and security declarations required from 31 January 2025, and consider the positive impact of the planned improvements to truckstops in England.

Brighter future for truckstop users…

The Department for Transport has pledged to invest £43 million to improve truckstops across England. This will come as a welcome investment for those who carry our goods across the country on a daily basis. However, it should also be seen as a huge benefit to those who sit behind the hauliers – the companies running the fleet, those instructing the haulage companies to move the goods and, importantly, those who insure both the haulage companies and cargo owners.

Whilst the home comforts such as better restaurants and showers will be appreciated by drivers, the investment will provide safer secure rest areas. Future of Roads Minister, Lilian Greenwood, has stated that truckstops will see improvements including specific parking bays and security fencing.

It is these security improvements that could see the industry benefiting from fewer incidents of theft of goods. Thefts often occur at truckstops whilst drivers take their required resting hours. It is estimated that theft of goods whilst being shipped by road cost the economy in excess of £500 million per year. Those losses are borne by the cargo owners, the haulage companies and, ultimately, their insurers.

In a competitive market, hauliers can be tempted to make savings by reducing the expenditure allowed for paid parking facilities which have added security. Hauliers and their insurers will of course understand the potential increase in exposure to theft and damage that cutting costs in security brings. However, the Government investment promised will provide ‘secure’ parking areas as a matter of course, rather than a financial choice.

We should also not forget that it is by the very nature of the job that drivers are subject to violence when there is inadequate security in place at designated truckstops.

The RHA estimates that 11,000 safe and secure parking spaces are needed to prevent drivers being forced onto unsafe lay-bys overnight.

The importance of driver safety was highlighted by Greenwood:

Lorry drivers keep our economy moving. It is only right they enjoy safe rest areas, easily available parking, and modern facilities…

It is hoped that the investment will prevent hailers having to park at unprotected and unsafe parking facilities.

It should also be remembered that as well as shipping instructions containing specific instructions to park in secure parking areas, insurance policies may also contain similar conditions to cover.

Security and safety declarations required from 31 January 2025

As the formalities surrounding Brexit are maybe now considered to be the new ‘norm’, five years after the UK left the European Union, the industry is hit with yet another formality when bringing goods into Great Britain.

From 31 January 2025 all goods that are imported from the EU into Great Britain are now required to be covered by a Safety and Security declaration. This is due to Great Britain no longer being part of the safety and security zone with the EU.

The legal requirement to file the declaration lies with the carrier. It is, unfortunately, yet another task for haulage companies to complete in an increasingly stretched market.

The rules only apply to hauliers when the point of entry into Great Britian is by a truck. For example, if a truck arrives by ferry and drives off the ferry, then the obligation is with the haulier. However, if a ferry transports an unaccompanied trailer, even if that trailer could be attached to a truck when it arrives into Great Britain, the point of entry is by ferry, not by truck. Therefore, the responsibility to file the declaration is with the ferry carrier, not the haulier.

This is important as, understandably, there may be some confusion as to who is deemed to be the ‘carrier’ for the purposes of the obligation to file the declaration.

Third parties are permitted to file the declaration on the hauliers’ behalf. Terms and conditions can be agreed for this purposes, however the contract should state:

That a third party has received consent.
Which terms and conditions should apply.

If a third party is filing the declaration on behalf of a haulier, it is likely that the third party will seek an indemnity for any liability that arises from that filing. It must be reiterated that the legal responsibility still lies with the carrier. Therefore, a haulier cannot simply avoid liability by saying that a third party has filed declarations on its behalf.

Contract terms should be reviewed carefully before agreeing to both complete the declaration or delegate the completion of the declaration. Further, insurance policies will need to be reviewed to assess whether the liability for failing to complete the necessary declarations is covered – it may be that fines for such liability is excluded. Similarly, the delay and resultant claims may also be excluded and hauliers will need to check the terms of their policy as to whether such a failure may come within an Errors & Omission clause or whether it is excluded.