A two-week campaign to capture drivers carrying out safety offence on the M25 is now underway with the help of unmarked HGV supercabs.

Police forces will use National Highway’s HGV supercabs to patrol the M25 and record drivers of all types of vehicles committing safety offences

Dubbed Operation Orbital, the campaign is being run by local police forces, who will use National Highway’s HGV supercabs to patrol the M25 and record drivers of all types of vehicles committing mobile phone, seatbelt, and other safety offences.

The HGV supercabs allow police officers to film evidence of unsafe driving behaviour by pulling up alongside vehicles, and drivers are then pulled over by police cars following a short distance behind.

The cabs have derestricted speed limiters, which means they can travel at speeds up to the national speed limit and have flashing lights for use in an emergency.

Operation Orbital will last for two weeks until Friday 18 November 2022 and is  being co-ordinated by National Highways with the involvement of DVSA plus police forces from the Metropolitan Police, City of London Police, Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent, Surrey and Thames Valley Police.

The campaign will also include work by enforcement agencies to carry out checks on vans and lorries. These will explore road worthiness, secure loads, weight, and drivers’ hours to reduce the risk of incidents along the route.

National Highways launched its HGV cabs in 2015 and the vehicles have since been used to capture 28,000-plus offences. The most common offences recorded include not wearing a seatbelt, using a mobile phone and not being in proper control of a vehicle. Drivers face everything from warnings to fixed penalty notices, court summons or arrest.

Footage revealed by National Highways earlier this year from a different operation involving the cabs includes a clip of a van driver using his phone and holding a drink, leaving both hands completely off the wheel at one point. A second video shows a lorry driver taking both his hands off the wheel to roll a cigarette while other footage reveals the moment a driver who is not wearing his seatbelt is spotted by Warwickshire Police.

National Highways is also trialling new camera-based technology that’s detecting motorists holding mobile phones or driving without seatbelts every six minutes. In its first 64 hours being tested, the vehicle checked a total of 122,241 vehicles on the M40 and A46 and resulted in 152 mobile phone detections. It also identified 512 vehicle occupants without a seatbelt.