Loophole? Pitfall!
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BRITISH COACH operators must still be smarting after the startling revelations on Radio Four's Going Places last Friday. Quite unbelievably, the director-general of the Bus and Coach Council, Dennis Quin, told the listening public that his members were exploiting a loophole in the law governing drivers' hours.
We have come to regard Mr Quin as a most law abiding citizen and the BBC as a most responsible body. Yet here he was condoning what could be described as an unsafe, irresponsible practice.
There is no question that coach operators — among them the National Bus Company — are operating to the letter of the law. If Mr Quin's statement is correct, however, they are not operating to the spirit of the law.
In recent years the coach industry in Britain has made great strides. It has captured, and continues to capture, traffic from rail on long-distance runs. Coaches are fast, comfortable and cheap to use. However, if economic fares are being achieved by driving coaches through loopholes in the law, then the hard earned reputation of the industry will be tarnished.
Mr Quin is apparently content to sit and wait for the law to be tested in British and European courts.
Operators should stop the practice now and should make approaches to Parliament to have the loopholes plugged before they have something to regret.