Abnormal loads
The list of who gets told is longer than people expect. The notice periods are shorter.
Who is told
Notice may be owed to the police, to each highway authority on the route, and to the owner of each bridge it crosses. On a long route that means several of each, in several areas. Auroute checks the route against the bridges and structures it holds for your patch, and lists each one it meets.
Notice periods
The period counts back from the day of the move. Notice that lands after the period starts is short notice, which you may accept but do not have to. Notice can also arrive in time and still be too late to act on, because it sat in the wrong inbox. Auroute lists what still needs assessing, and can sort it by the day it moves.
How notices arrive
Notices come by National Highways' ESDAL service, by email and by other routes. Each one still has to be checked and recorded somewhere. Auroute works with ESDAL and email, so they all land in one queue.
Where it goes wrong
It reaches the right organisation but the wrong inbox. It arrives in time, but nobody picks it up until the day before. It is answered by someone who has since left. Or the same movement gets two different answers.
The record
Every notification lands in one list. Every decision is kept with who made it and when. A route you approved before, for a load no bigger, comes in already marked approved. So the same movement asked about twice gets the same answer.
A movement rarely concerns one organisation. The police, each highway authority on the route and each bridge owner may all be owed notice. Bridge owners are not only councils. National Highways, Network Rail and the Canal & River Trust own bridges, and some are privately owned.
What notice is owed depends on what is moving. The period counts back from the day of the move, and the notice has to arrive before it starts. Over the ordinary weight limits, each highway and bridge authority on the route gets notice and an indemnity. That is two clear working days up to 80 tonnes, and five from 80 to 150 tonnes. The police get two clear working days for a load that is wide or long, or over 80 tonnes. Up to 80 tonnes, weight alone does not bring the police in. Above 150 tonnes a Special Order is needed, and the police and every highway and bridge authority get five.
Notice that arrives after the period has started is short notice. The police or an authority may accept it, but they do not have to.
Notices come by National Highways' ESDAL service (Electronic Service Delivery for Abnormal Loads), by email and by other routes. Each one still has to be checked and recorded somewhere.
One place everything arrives. One place the answer is kept. A way of seeing what is still outstanding without asking anybody. That removes most of the failures above. It is how Auroute's abnormal loads tool works. When a movement is questioned months later, the answer is still there, with who gave it.
See them answered in one place, on your own network.