The City of London Police Commercial Vehicle Unit is working alongside the already established Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) Commercial Vehicle Unit and the Industrial HGV Task Force on what it describes as intelligence-led operations.
Top offences to date include: lack of insurance; lack of an appropriate licence; unsafe tyres; unsafe loads; and tachograph infringements.
"The newly formed City of London Police Commercial Vehicle Unit will help us go further in targeting the most dangerous HGVs and taking them off our roads," comments Steve Burton, TfL's director of enforcement and on-street operations.
TfL has also part funded a new Freight Compliance Unit, whose job it is to work with and support London's enforcement and regulatory agencies, including the traffic commissioners.
The unit, which includes staff from DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency) and the MPS, will undertake analysis and work with enforcement teams to ensure there is a coordinated, approach to taking non-compliant HGV drivers, vehicles and operators off the capital's roads, says Burton.
For example, the unit will use the ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) cameras network to identify operators that have had their licences modified or revoked by the traffic commissioners, and help enforcement teams to target these non-compliant operators.
"Working with Transport for London and the DVSA has already shown the benefits of a true partnership approach to dealing with operators who are prepared to take risks with the safety of others," comments David Aspinall, City of London police inspector.
"We look forward to developing this partnership further and working more closely with key stakeholders to encourage operators to become compliant or remove them from the road," he adds.
However, Matt Winfield, deputy director of Sustrans London, comments: "It is important and challenging to move freight in this city, but the level of non-compliance with quite basic safety standards is shocking.
"Even when HGVs are fully compliant with current safety regulations they are still dangerous vehicles to share the roads with. Restrictions on how and where HGVs operate in the capital, as well as enforcement of safety standards and junctions designed to be safe for all users, are urgently required."