The term ‘recovery vehicle’ is an open term, which has been used for generations to describe one vehicle that is used to transport another. It covers beavertails and tilt and slides, underlifts and trailers, and the flexibility of recovery vehicles bring a few otherwise separate industries, together.

This mixing of industries is not exclusive to recovery trucks and it’s definitely not an uncommon approach in Ireland. Most, although definitely not all, individuals or companies who use recovery trucks, are aware of some of the differences between using a recovery vehicle as a licensed recovery operator, or being someone who is not licensed as a recovery operator. Yet in the same breath, most of the knowledge that exists in relation to what is legal and what is being taken seriously, by the powers that be, seems hard to verify.
    The Irish Recovery Network (IRN) takes phone calls every week from people throughout the various industries, who want to make sense of what they need to do to stay on the correct side of the law, and what measures the law makers and upholders are going to employ in order to enforce this. There is no point in someone investing in their business to have certification that might not be required, when someone a few miles down the road can get away with operating without meeting basic standards, undercutting those who are trying to do the right thing.

For the past year the IRN have attempted to compile a simple to follow overview, which would clearly set out what the owners and drivers of recovery vehicles needed to adhere to. Through repeated attempts to gain clarity from the relevant bodies, no one seems to want to provide any fixed point of information. Due to this lack of information, it is impossible to work out the reasons for the inability to compile the simple guidelines and the subsequent enforcement of these; however, the rumblings of discontent seem to be growing from within the industry.

Are the existing laws so clouded that we can’t have one simple guideline to support an industry in need? Are our political representatives so dismissive of the consequences of an unsupported vehicle recovery and transport industry, that it has no desire to communicate with us? Is the industry so insignificant that we aren’t worth supporting?

The recovery vehicle industries need simple guidelines to allow them to decide what they need to do to move their business forward and 2012 needs to be a big year for this. Do we need to meet health and safety at work legislation? Who is checking this? Will we embrace our own version of PAS43 or will we continue using a version that isn’t even recognised in our own country? You would think that it wasn’t too much to ask the people who have the answers, that they might offer those answers back to the people who keep the roads moving.