Police raid school proms

What do you get when you mix a 16 year old with a party prom dress and battenberg stripes? No, we are not talking anything along the line of cakes… in this years case, a whole heap of distressed school prom kids who have found their one big day of celebrating years and years of school work to see their prom limousine be stripped from them.

Road worthiness of limousines has been a big talking point over the last few years and knowone is denying that, although the facts do speak for themselves, as stated by the NLCA (The national Limousine & Chauffeur association) limousines are 17% safer than aircrafts!

When you dig a little deeper into the scenario ask any limousine operator and they will find it hard to fathom just why limousine checks are carried out in such a fashion, it has become a massive inconvenience to the operator but also to the prom kids and parents who have organised what is meant to be a special occasion. Yes, we are aware there are still some cowboy operators out there who are running limousines unlawfully, yes we are aware AND for the most of us anyway want to ensure we can do as much as possible to ensure limousines on the road are as safe as possible, it just shocks us to see the conduct into how these checks are being carried out.

When travelling to our first prom of the 2009 season, one of our HummerHummer limousines was stopped like many other limousines that evening in Essex on private property next to the school. When stopped by a traffic police officer, the chauffeur complied with all requests in which we met through our vehicle operations booklet. It failed on the basis the vehicle did not have a digital tachograph fitted. As with many other limousine companies will appreciate there is currently and only very recently two companies in the whole of the UK who can confirm they can fit a digital tachograph in a Hummer. This is due to the gearbox having to be modified for this specific vehicle. Many companies like ourselves have tried to get a digital tacho fitted only to be told by our local service centres that they can not fit a digital tacho to a Hummer. This is something which we had in writing from the local service centre to show the traffic police. We also had manual tacho records to be presented until companies like ourselves can get scheduled in for a digital tacho to be fitted at one of the two companies in the UK. This you would think would show participation on our part and hopefully consideration from VOSA or the traffic police if we do get stopped for checks.

After a long discussion with our vehicle operations manager, no consideration seemed to be given and the limousine had to be low loaded onto a truck to be transported back to headquarters and be put out of service until a digital tachoraph had been fitted. Fortunately the guys at limoengineering.co.uk have now prioritised our company due to the prohibition and we can now confirm ALL of our HummerHummer limousines have tachographs fitted. We just hope other limousines companies with similar issues can follow suit and get their Hummer limousines fitted before more of these cases come to light.

Time and time again all limousine companies ask for is an independent classification and financially viable route into how we can all run legally and fairly as a limousine operator in the UK. Years on and we are still being faced with hurdles whereby we are being faced with major regulation costs only to see the goal posts being moved.

If your Son or Daughter is having a school prom this year and you are concerned with the current limousine laws and limitations feel free to drop us a line whereby we can provide further information to you or to your schools organiser. Please note all limousines in the UK can currently seat a MAXIMUM of 16 passengers.

Regards,

HummerHummer vehicle operations
http://www.HummerHummer.co.uk
0870 321 2332