Gloucestershire Constabulary is developing a mobile app for people to report commercial vehicle drivers who push boundaries on the roads.
It is being developed under the Commercial Vehicle Watch project, which is part of the Department for Transport’s National Roads Policing Review, and the force has called on the public to get involved in testing it over the next few months.
The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Gloucestershire said it will provide the scope to report speeding, inconsiderate parking, the contravention of height, width or weight restrictions, fly tipping and dangerous, careless or inconsiderate driving.
Police will gather information on how useful participants find the app and to inform members of the Gloucestershire Road Safety Partnership of the major problems and concerns.
The information will be regularly reviewed by the project team to pinpoint where resources are needed and assess whether the app should be used for other road related issues.
Lorries and vans
Gloucestershire Constabulary’s director of specialist operations, Superintendent Paul Keasey, said: “By commercial vehicles, we mean lorries and vans who are clearly making deliveries or providing services with little or no regard for other road users. It’s not about privately owned vehicles.
“We know there is a problem with this sort of anti-social behaviour and we’ve built an app that will make it easier to report it. But at this stage, we want to prove the concept is right and for that we need to find out from the public what the issues are.
“When we have that information, we can work with the county council through the road safety partnership on finding solutions. But first, people must understand the purpose of this pilot is not to resolve issues that are raised. This is all about appreciating the scale of community concerns, and how effectively the app can be used to pass information to the Road Safety Partnership.
“When we are confident it works, it can help partnership members to provide the right resources to tackle the problems raised”.
The Commercial Vehicle Watch project is scheduled to run until December.
