Agency drivers are still legal
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• A law firm has quashed industry worries that many agency drivers are driving illegally following a High Court ruling earlier this year.
Last February a High Court judge intervened in a dispute between Night Trunkers and Interlink Express Parcels, ruling that the company which legally employs the driver must hold the Operators Licence.
The decision was designed to clarify the legality of a contract between Night Trurkers and intorlink where drivers employed by Night Trunker were driving Interlink trucks where Interlink held the 0-licence.
The ruling sparked widespread fears that agency drivers were driving illegally.
But Nottingham law firm Browne Jacobson has dismissed those fears, claiming that the law has not changed.
It argues that the key point is that drivers must be under the control of the transport operator and as such be treated as an employee for the purposes of transport legislation.
This means that the operator should be responsible for salary payment; instructions should generally come from the operator and the driver should be subject to the operating company's disciplinary and grievance procedures. Caroline Green, head of freight and logistics at Browne Jacobson, says: "This ruling simply serves as a useful reminder of the law on 0-licensing which has not changed since 1933."
Night Trunkers has lost the right to appeal against the High Court ruling but could still choose to fight the decision through the Court of Appeal—it has until the end of May to lodge an application.