When you’re next driving, what you might think is another lorry passing by could be an undercover police officer in an unmarked heavy goods vehicle (HGV). As part of Operation Tramline, in the last 12 months, police across the country in three so-called ‘supercabs’, caught over 3,000 motorists committing driving offences.
Twenty-nine police forces have used the unmarked HGVs to patrol England’s motorways and major A-roads, using wide angled cameras to film evidence of unsafe driving and have already recorded over 3,500 offences in one year.
Causing offence
To improve safety on England’s high-speed roads, the police HGVs use de-restricted speed limiters so they can travel at speeds up to the national speed limit. The HGVs pull up alongside vehicles and marked police cars following behind pull over the motorists committing the driving offences.
In 2017, 27% (1,195) of people killed on the road weren’t wearing their seat belts. Despite this, not wearing a seat belt was the top offence recorded by officers of Operation Tramline. Figures from Highways England show a third of the vehicles filmed contained someone in the vehicle without their seat belt fastened.
New studies show one death on the roads every 12 days involves mobile phone use. Yet the second most prevalent offence caught by the supercabs involved motorists using hand-held devices while driving (1,062 offences). The next most common offences included not being in proper control of a vehicle (262 offences) and speeding (118 offences).
One of the most shocking bits of footage released by Highways England includes a lorry driver making an online payment while driving. Snapped on the M40 near Leamington Spa in Warwickshire, the footage shows the man holding his credit card with one hand and his mobile phone with the other.
Other footage shows a van driver on the A38 holding his phone in one hand, changing gear with the other, pulling into a service station a few seconds later. Officers recorded another motorist driving his pickup truck on the M60 near Eccles, Greater Manchester, texting with both hands.
Figures show there’s twice the chance of crashing from text-driving as from drink-driving. As drivers, we’re advised to turn off our phones before setting off in our vehicles, but a fifth of drivers (21%) can’t bear to switch off their phones. With young drivers, the figure increased to more than half (51%) unable to power down their electronic companions.
In 12 months, police filed 2,533 traffic offence reports—which often results in the guilty motorist attending a driver education course—and issued 462 penalty charge notices. Police made 73 further prosecutions for more serious offences. Despite these startling figures, the number of offences has fallen since 2018.
Highway robbery
Whenever news breaks of yet more driver monitoring, the public question why our government can use money and police resources for such endeavours when other crimes appear to go uninvestigated and it’s a valid question.
While it’s true that government cuts are destroying our police forces’ ability to police well and that ministers need to address the issue, we can’t ignore the fact that many road incidents and resulting deaths are avoidable, so perhaps those drivers who appear to have a surgical attachment to their mobiles will feel less tempted to break the law knowing police officers can peer into their car without them knowing.
Chief Constable Anthony Bangham, National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Roads Policing said:
“Operation Tramline is a successful collaboration between the police and Highways England.
“We remain committed to tackling those who take unnecessary risks with their own safety and the safety of others on our roads by allowing themselves to be distracted while driving. The consequences of these actions are often devastating.
“We will continue to work alongside Highways England on Operation Tramline and will prosecute drivers who ignore the risks.”
Support also came from Tom Cotton, Head of Licencing and Infrastructure Policy for the Road Haulage Association, who said:
“We need to improve road safety—there’s a small minority of drivers whose actions endanger other road users often with tragic consequences.”
Stay on the straight and narrow
Using a hand-held mobile phone whilst driving became illegal in December 2003 and in March 2017, the Department for Transport increased the punishment for motorists using their phones while driving, from three to six penalty points. Fines also went from £100 to £200.
If these punishments aren’t enough, they bring with them higher insurance costs. Also, if you get six points in the first two years of passing your driving test, you’ll lose your licence. If your driving’s bad, or if a crash occurs while you’re using the phone, police could also prosecute you for careless or dangerous driving.
Drivers using a mobile while driving must have hands-free access, such as a Bluetooth headset or a windscreen mount—as long as the device doesn’t block your view. With that said, police can prosecute you If you’re seen not to be in control of a vehicle while using a hands-free phone.
You can hold a mobile phone to make an emergency call to 999 or 112 only if stopping is unsafe or impractical.
It’s also illegal to hold a phone, or a satnav while riding a motorcycle.
Footballer David Beckham was last week banned from driving for six months after a member of the public photographed him using his phone while driving. Dashcams now feature in many cars, plenty of cyclists use helmet cams, and CCTV is everywhere, so remember; it’s not only the police watching you.
What’s your opinion on the undercover HGVs? Are you for or against Operation Tramline? Tell us your views in the comments.
Can you use your smart phone as a sat nav?
yes, but you must set it up before starting to drive and you must not touch it when driving, it must also be stored in a secure place and not held in your hand.
my speed awareness course basically said the same in that ANY electronic device i.e. smartwatch, phone, tablet cant be touched or used whilst the keys are in the ignition with the engine running (put them on the dash to avoid any Police booking) but you can use any electronic device which is standard manufactured fitted equipment
Are you another driver who knows nothing about motoring law too ??you must be !!
Here he is, you may cast the first stone. Bishbut the best driver the world has ever seen. Never gone past 29mph in a 30 an thinks 69 mph in middle lane of m6 is fine.
Yes but can’t touch it while motor is running.
Perhaps if police focused on serious offences that are dangerous & ignored technical offences that are not, we would accept undercover HGV’s. Unfortunately it is hard not to feel they are out to get us for anything as easy targets, whilst serious crime fails to get the attention it more justly deserves.
did you not even read the article:
“Figures show there’s twice the chance of crashing from text-driving as from drink-driving. As drivers, we’re advised to turn off our phones before setting off in our vehicles, but a fifth of drivers (21%) can’t bear to switch off their phones. ”
“New studies show one death on the roads every 12 days involves mobile phone use. Yet the second most prevalent offence caught by the supercabs involved motorists using hand-held devices while driving (1,062 offences).”
How true last week I was sent a notice of intended prosecution from a camera van. Not for speeding but for having a registration plate where the two numeric characters were too far apart. I know that anpr could read the plate as In was stopped for suspected lack of insurance soon after putting the private plate on the car. It was insured the company had omitted to change the number on the database as I had requested them to do. So what was the problem???? Other than wanting to get cash from me. oh the police that stopped me made no comment about the plate.
well let me wade in with a comment – you’ve got a private plate so you’re clearly a Berkshire Hunt
Hi Dan, i live in Cumbria and have a private plate as well you ignorant plonker.
And I live in Wigan and have a private plate too
So you persuaded somebody to make you non-standard (read “illegal”) plates. And somebody else should fail your MOT for them too (except you probably have a new car every year, so no MOTs). And when you do have a hit-and-run, you made it harder for them to catch you because your plates are unreadable. And you do this because you think people should be impressed that you need to label your possessions ostentatiously (as in dog to lamppost). You have all the sympathy from me that you deserve — nil.
Paul, just where do you people come from ?? not everyone with a private plate are from the rich list you know. I am a disabled driver and have a totaly legal plate that denotes my nickname and my initials. SO JUST WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM MATE.
It’s a fact that people who have personalised number plates are more likely to be stopped for motoring offences and also a 50% chance of having your car stolen.
Evidence??????
David,
Paul was commenting on D Jackson’s post where he admitted to having an illegal plate by having non-standard spacing. He wasn’t saying all “private” plates are a problem. If yours is “EM66 DJM” then that’s fine.
In my experience, most ‘private’ plates are the ones where illegal spacing or trimming of letters to make a ‘5’ look like an ‘S’. You wouldn’t need to do it unless you thought it spelt something. And that’s when it makes it hard to read.
It may be the thin end of the wedge, but there’s a law in place to set font size and spacing for a reason.
Hmmmm….is causing an accident and potentially death or serious injury not worthy of attention. The issue of government funding into other police activities is another debate.
doing anything in a vehicle other than driving is dangerous, doh!!!
I approve of anything that helps keep me safe from other drivers who are not fully in control of their vehicle.
While shocking, in the global scheme of things not very productive given the millions of offences committed
Three months driving ban and a two and a half thousand pounds fine for using a mobile phone while driving
Wouldn’t affect those criminals who steal cars though, would it?
I see drivers everywhere in the south east using phones. It’s incredible as most of the culprits are ones with high end BMW, Mercedes and Range Rovers. You’re not going to tell me they haven’t got Bluetooth in these cars. They deserve to be banned for 2 years and fined heavily too. If they can afford a car like those they can afford the fines and maybe the ban maybe the only answer. I have no sympathy. Idiotic
The ban IS the answer.
The police should have the vehicle crushed and Driver band that would make drivers think twice.
Hi Simon, i quite agree with you on both points but it would be a lot better if they made it so no signal came into or out of a motor vehichle, whilst on the move that would solve all these problems if you had to get out of the car or van etc to make or receive a call.
what frightens me more is the amount of drivers on drugs, quite often with no insurance or even licence
Source of the statistics please, so that it can frighten me too.
Wake up drivers – we are still a major social, economic and environmental drag on the world and it’s long past the stage we should be paying the real cost of the damage we do.
Speak for yourself.
More power to “Operation Tramline” and similar initiatives in reducing the increasing numbers of instances of poor if not abominable driving I see on daily basis..
The Police,deal with all crime , over the last 30+ years of work driving in the UK , excessive speed,distraction. Either mobiles sat navs,eating and drinking at the wheel ,all of this I see on a daily basis .I was taught that the road system was designed to keep the traffic flow moving including the speed limits set.We were all taught to Drive ,maybe we should remember what we were taught and read the high way code from time to time .Bad driving is a crime and the authority’s police ,road alliance, etc are upholding and enforcing where necessary.
Only 3000? these guys need to get out more. 3 vehicles on the road, that averages less than 3 each per day. On my last trip along the motorway, which was only about 10 miles my passenger counted 3 people texting , 4 holding their phones to their ears, presumably making a call & one van driver reading a newspaper…… All on a relativly busy stretch of Motorway approaching the city centre with loads of traffic coming on and off slip roads.
I’m stunned at the drivel I’ve read about the police here. I’m not a fan of theirs (they do nothing about excessive speeding here in my bit of dorset) but it seems they are trying to do something to make our roads safer for us all to use. I advocate at least trebling fines with loss of licence. Keep death off the roads.
First of all I should emphasise that the law is the law and I will always obey it whether I agree with it or not. That said there are areas of mobile law that make sense to me and others that don’t. The first principle of driving must always be that the driver’s attention must always be on the road whatever may be going on inside the vehicle. So if you have a screaming child alongside you in the car they must continue to scream until you can pull up safely and attend to their needs. I was involved in an accident a few years ago because the other driver ignored this principle during a difficult right turn but the law makes no specific provision for this situation. I am entirely with the authorities on the use of the phone for texting and the like. The driver cannot focus on the road and send or receive texts and an innocent person could certainly die as a result. But I am not convinced that answering a ringing phone whilst driving is any different to talking to a front seat passenger, the more so since my car is an automatic. As for switching the phone off before starting a journey that is patently absurd. Sadly I am of an age where a relative or close friend could easily have a heart attack whilst I am on a journey. At present I can be warned of this by text message as long as I pull up safely before responding. Under these guidelines they could die and I wouldn’t even know. The bottom line is I believe this whole area needs more thought. And whilst dangerous driving (such as defined in the article) by a minority of lorry drivers must be punished severely it does not follow that police should be using resources on this to the detriment of other crime detection where there is a higher risk of danger to the public.
Having read the treads i am surprised that no one (unless i have missed it) has commented on the environmental issue of using these huge environmentally damaging gas guzzlers to carry out this task. Its not really what they were designed for and with today’s technology i am surprised that we have to go to these extremes to to catch these cretins on their phones, which i am in full agreement with having to do to prevent losing lives. come on the boffins surely you can come up with something less drastic than driving these monsters up and down the country for this purpose.
Change your name to soppy, always one soft environmental pratt. It will do about 15mpg with no trailer, they need the height to see down into cars and also across into wagons. Or do you think you can cycle at 60mph from the top of a ladder?
I’m glad the police are catching law breakers.
I’m glad the police are catching law breakers.
Look at those statistics! 3500 reported offences by 3 police trucks in 365 days?? A wonderful THREE convictions per day per truck!!
How much pollution and initial cost and manpower goes into that operation? Especially as each truck needs another police car in attendance to process the catch.
There has to be a more effective way of nailing mobile users and missing seat belts than this grandstanding farce.
Distracted, arrogant and ignorant drivers infuriate me. I have seen drivers reading at the wheel (newspaper on the passenger seat, book on the steering wheel), and I got knurfed from behind on the M4 in slow traffic by some woman doing her mascara in the rear view mirror. But catching people like this is a hopeless response to the problem.
spot on, i think we have to chuck everything we can at this problem but am very surprised that this way of doing so falls within one of our best efforts in this day and age of technology. what next, do we use a cruise liner to catch illegal fishing in our waters, or use a jumbo jet to chase drug traffickers in light air craft. If its a stealth or viewing/filming at height thing, then surely a disguised elevated camera on a fuel efficient more suitable mode of transport would give you this same advantage. Not to mention the costs involved on our supposedly under financed, stretched to the bones police force.
LIKE A LOT OF THINGS-WHAT SEEMS A HIGH PRICE TO PAY, CONSIDER THE SAVING TO THE NHS IN PREVENTING EXTENSIVE COSTS FOR TREATMENT ETC TO A BADLY INJURED PERSON AS THE RESULT OF AN RTA.
MY DAUGHTER WAS VERY BADLY INJURED DUE TO THE OTHER DRIVERS FAULT. MY WIFE WORKED IN THE HOSPITAL WHERE SHE WAS TAKEN AND WAS ABLE CALCULATE THE COST OF HER STAY LN THERE FOR 6 MONTHS AT OVER £2,000,000 AND THAT WAS OVER 30 YEARS AGO!!!
Personally I have no problem with the police driving lorries to look into your car, but I’d like to know how they catch you, assuming your at 70mph, as they would have to exceed the limit! It seems safety rules can be broken if there’s money in it.
Next time I’m on a motorway driving at 70 and a lorry is catching me I’ll know it’s one of those legally illegal non practice what we preach type people.
i take your point, but if you ever have to call the police for assistance and they arrive hours or days late or even not at all, i can guarantee the excuse will be lack of officers-lack of funding etc etc ect. Fueling-manning-insuring-maintaining these bloody great land trains is not an efficient way to do this. Surely we can do better than that.
They are not land trains only the cabs of an artic vehicle also they do not need a car following as the photo is sufficient for a prosecution
Now then soppy, the trucks are payed for by highways England and lent out to the police forces up an down country for free (well other than fuel) . Don’t look a pratt by not knowing what your talking about.
Whilst not condoning illegal driving in any way, it does appear that despite us forever being told that Police resources are down, meaning that the likes of burglaries can’t be investigated, there never seems to be a shortage of Officers to crack down on motorists. Almost every week of the year, we hear that a new initiative is being targeted, seat belts, speeding, mobile phone use, etc. It does appear that motoring offences do tend to take precedence in this current financial climate.
I’m in total agreement with operation tramline .Anyone caught using a mobile phone while driving should face an automatic driving ban of at least 3 months not that this will stop them using their mobile whilst driving as they will do it as soon as they are allowed back behind the wheel.As an hfs driver myself I am in total favour of what the police can do with the limited resources they have now.
I don’t mind the police driving HGVs to catch mobile phone users but HGVs are restricted to 56mph because they take longer to stop. derestricting these HGVs could potentially cause a serious accident. One other point is that if the mobile phone user they are trying to catch notices an HGV catching them up when they are doing seventy on the motorway its a bit of a giveaway that its a police HGV.
Police is doing wonderful job. I have seen people driving at over 100mph speed which can create disaster. They should carry on these sort of activities to make our road safer.
Shame they are not used to catch
Muggers, people who commit knife crime, robberies etc, would get more support from the public than carving motorists for minor traffic offence!
What a waste of our money whilst real criminals roam free. !!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!’
Minor traffic offence try telling that to the family of somebody killed by someone using a mobile whilst driving. Always some f****t who thinks this is acceptable and not worth bothering about
I totally agree with this method of policing if you drive to the rules then you have nothing to fear, if I had my way all police cars would be unmarked then no one would know if a car was a police car or not, yes I do stick to the rules I was a HGV driver for 47years and am now 80 year old with a clean licence
“why our government can use money and police resources for such endeavours when other crimes appear to go uninvestigated” – exactly that, serious crimes are not being investigates because there are “no gain”. For example if car is stolen, it might take weeks to investigate, considering current lax law and legal practice the best they can get on thief is “possession of stolen goods” and the car itself most likely going to be returned to the driver or insurance company. Therefore when you report something like that, usual answer is that you should claim from your insurance, because it is “not in public interest to investigate”, or “police found no traces (never looked for) and therefore have to stop investigation”. However, when it comes to petty crimes on the road it is literally gold mine for police, they can scoop people 24/7 on the laws they can invent as they go. All cars have number plates, so it is as simple as fixing the camera and filming what is going on and sending letter with best wishes and £100 fines. Undercover police should be banned when it comes to non-criminal offences (that is most driving offences, and to be hones should all driving offences).
Yes I am all for it it the only way the police can catch anyone committing offence
They should have these HGV,s full of police in town centres on a friday and saturday night to stop all this street fighting and drunken disorderly yes get it about dangerous driving and its probably the only way police forces gwt some money after the conservatives disgraceful police cuts
With the amount of traffic on the roads, which includes unnecessary oversized cars, and the incidence of terrible drivers on the main road network as well as our rural roads, the government needs to invest in more traffic police cruising around, that would solve part of the problems, until that happens the incidence of poor driving will be a constant risk and a menace to careful sensible drivers. It’s not just the motorways that are a problem.
Great, hit them harder I say for some of the stupidity seen on the road, so many people now grow up with no correcting, so they do what they like. Therefore see no reason why they should obey the rules of the road, can you Imagine what some would get up to if there was no policing. I was stood waiting for a bus the other day, two vans went by within 30 seconds, one on the phone, the other was eating
a pot noodle spoon in one hand noodle pot in the other, unbelievable stupidity, but do they think so ???
I’ve seen cyclists with no hands on the handlebars texting with both thumbs. Does the law apply to them or once again do they get away Scot free. As for these unrestricted police lorries, I saw a program that claimed they could achieve speeds of up to 100mph
While I applaud the police catching motoring offenders, it is absurd to use highly-polluting HGVs when a normal unmarked car would do the job. Absolute irresponsible stupidity.
Their logic here is a car is no good as they can’t look down into the car for the people with their phones and tablets on their lap
I just wonder how much it is costing both in police time and money to have both a HGV vehicle AND an undercover vehicle out on the same job. I totally agree that using a mobile phone whilst driving is not safe. However the driver is the only ‘criminal’ who the police are actively out there looking to see if they are breaking the law. With any other crime it seems that you are very lucky if it is investigated at all and that’s when the crime has actually happened. But there again there isn’t any monetary incentive for them to catch a burglar, rapist, thief, thugs or otherwise, so maybe that explains it.
Just a very small number of motorists caught who are regularly breaking the law.Most drivers no nothing of what is in the Highway Code and nothing nothing at all of motoring laws
Resources seem to figure – isn’t about time fines and money recovered from crime went direct to those fighting it instead of the Government Tax sinkhole to be apportioned out (inappropriate and often wasted) by politicians?
That’s nothing nil, Cyprus police have done over 2,500 drivers in one weekend, so where are you coming from?
Mark. I totally agree.if you get caught they should be banned for life.remember a vehicle is a killing machine if driven incorrectly.also why haven’t they developed software where the mobile devices are turned off automatically when you get into a vehicle.but stays on when it detects that the mobile device has bluetooth.
I have an IPhone 6s that will not take calls if I am moving,it can be turned off if a passenger wants to use it.
I cannot believe that people cannot wait 30 minutes to make a call or call back.
I know people make longer journeys but why not stop every 90 minutes if you are so hung up if you are missing something,as for the guy in fear of his friends dropping dead,him knowing 30 minutes earlier because he had his phone switched on is hardly going to make a difference,and that goes for all of us.
What next?Intercourse behind the wheel because you couldn’t wait to get home?
Jeeeeeeezz some people.
I plug my phone into the dashboard of my Octavia before setting off. I then have satnav on the multifunction display and have hands free phone calling. The phone sits in a pocket below the dash, out of the way.
Better than getting six points.
An excellent concept. The more illegal drivers caught the better for safety.
I’m in full agreement with the strategy of preventing accidents through some people not using common sense and Not Giving or Paying 100% to the Driving Of The Road They are on and the attention to the Task Of “Full Concentration During That Time of That Driver In Charge of That Vehicle at That Time!” Do What You Can To Eliminate This Please!” G. A. W.
Don’t do the crime and don’t get the fine. Its not that hard.
I am pleased to know that heavy goods vehicles might be driven by police. I was not sure why they will be allowed to do seventy mph as the tonnage at that speed is dangerous. I do a lot of motorway driving and am pleased that some lorry drivers could be policemen. This means they won’t cut me up if I am not doing the maximum speed that a lorry driver wants to do. Very often a silly lorry driver will punish you for driving slower than he wants to by cutting you up. They are very skillful at this and manage to miss the front of my vehicle by a mere six feet when they pull in sharply. I am in a van and they are in an artic. Also driving too close to a slower car hogging the middle lane causing very close tailgating by lorries, is potentially lethal. Are the police watching for this, I am sure they are. It may be a shortcoming by the lane hogger but do they deserve to die?
Usually the lane hogger is a foreigner or an elderly driver, and need educating I am quite sure. Another annoying thing is people stopping on a motorway sliproad because they do not match the speed of the traffic already on the motorway. They forget to use their accelerator and get up to speed down the sliproad.
This won’t be the lorry that advises them as they will be just filming. Speeding and using a hand held mobile whist driving is fair game for the police. Mr. policeman, please stop dangerous driving like people undertaking at speed and then moving over to the fast lane once more. This is the idiotic driver, and again is not mentally safe to drive. Go get’em, that’s what we want you to do.
Well now I understand how it is that some HGVs I encounter seem not to be limited to 56mph. As a frequent M-way user, but no speed freak, I habitually travel at 60-63mph (trust me, it’s measurably more economical than 70-ish) and take for granted that I can pass HGVs reasonably at that speed. However, on several occasions I have passed a HGV and pulled back in at 63-65mph to find that I then do not gain on the very large vehicle behind me. The movie ‘Duel’ comes to mind at such moments and I wonder if these HGVs are derestricted to break the law. Clearly there is one rule for the Police and another for everybody else. I note that in the USA, truckers routinely travel at (or above) their highway speed limits (no EU regulations to slow them down) because their priority is covering distances in the shortest time. (and fuel is less-heavily taxed), hence the ‘Duel’ phenomenon is quite common.