Major inspection of seafood drivers – 100 usage bans – news Trøndelag

In Møre and Romsdal, Innlandet, Trøndelag and Viken, checks have been carried out on salmon runoff in recent days. Runoff occurs if the hold in which the fish is transported is not sufficiently cooled. The fish is in boxes filled with ice, which then melts. The result is that bloody fish water flows out of the trucks and onto the road. At freezing temperatures it can freeze to ice. – In addition, when the roads are dry or the weather is hot, this has an oily consistency which can be dangerous for those on two wheels. We want to eliminate the problem. That’s what Kim-Ruben Våge, head of the Traffic and Vehicles office, Norwegian Road Administration, says. The result of the large-scale inspection was a total of 109 bans on use. Driver received three driving bans on the same day Of the 109 drivers who were banned from driving, seven were banned twice in one day. One of the drivers received three driving bans – on the same trip. This means that the driver was stopped in control, had to stand still until the temperature in the hold had dropped, before the person was allowed to drive on and was stopped again due to runoff. – I don’t think it’s particularly nice to hear. We have been working on this for a long time and recommended that the problem be improved. So we hope there will be a change soon, says Våge in the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. – This was a notified control. How do you think the results would have been if it had not been announced? – I would assume that the number would have been higher, says Våge. He says that a driver had said at the inspection at Malvik in Trøndelag that his employer had asked him to turn up the cooling, because of the notified inspection. – The Norwegian Public Roads Administration works continuously with traffic safety and fair competition conditions for the industry. Then it is disappointing that they are encouraged to wear adequate cooling only because they were notified of the inspection. Because that is usually not the case otherwise, says Våge. Representatives from the seafood industry, the police and the National Roads Administration present at the inspection. Photo: Jøte Toftaker / news Næringa: – Taking it seriously Randi Grøntvedt is the regional manager of Seafood Norway. It is the national association for the fisheries and aquaculture industry. She was present at the inspection and says it has been useful to see the problem in practice, even though the seafood industry has been working on this for a long time. The slaughterhouses are working to reduce the core temperature of the fish and other measures for equipment in the trucks, says Grøntvedt. – It is a problem we take seriously, and which we do not want to be there, she says. The regional manager believes that 107 usage bans are far too many, and that the industry must work to bring it down. They are already looking at solutions and have, among other things, financed a research project to overcome the problem. Shared responsibility – People have known about this for many years and have been doing it for many years. When can this end? – I would very much like to be able to answer that well. We have established a good collaboration with the Norwegian Road Administration and the police, where we work in parallel to look at clear solutions that we can do, while at the same time they look at regulatory changes, says Grøntvedt. – Who is responsible? – The responsibility is shared, it is both on those who produce the fish, but also on those who transport the fish, she says. Randi Grøntvedt is regional manager at Seafood Norway. She says the industry is already doing a lot to overcome the problem. Photo: Jøte Toftaker / news Working on rule change The Norwegian Road Administration currently has few options for sanctions against runoff, apart from temporary bans on use. They have therefore been commissioned by the Ministry of Transport and Communications to assess what a change in the rules for sanctioning this might look like. – We are going to look at a rule change in relation to how we react to runoff, as part of checking load securing, says Jan Erik Myhr, section head of outdoor inspection at the Norwegian Road Administration. – The work has only just begun, so I can’t say much for now, he says.



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