Drivers Club attacks Bill
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The Continental Freight Drivers Club has taken up the question of the Dock Work Bill with a number of MPs and Members of the House of Lords. In this, the first of our regular monthly series of articles on the activities of C.F.D.C., their objections to the Bill are outlined.
C.D.F.C. has 6,000 members in Europe and describes itself as a non-political trade union looking after the interests of drivers who are engaged mainly on TIR work (CM Dec 5, 1975).
The Dock Work Regulation Bill, as amended by the Standing Committee, Is still a subject for concern, as far as lorry drivers are concerned. The C.F.D.C. has the following specific comments : *The Bill is still vague as to whether a lorry driver might at any time have to surrender his vehicle to unqualified personnel within the Dock Area, and it is felt that the exclusion provisions in the Bill do not cover this point.
• The U.1.C.R., representing some 600,000 lorry drivers throughout eight Western European countries, including the UK has already stated that in no circurnStances will lorry drivers surrender their vehicles to unqualified personnel, and it is easy to envisage trouble in the Dock Area, should this .situation arise.
• Foreign insurance companies have already stated that their cover will be withdrawn should a vehicle be so surrendered. Consequently, it is not certain who will be responsible for any damage caused to a lorry or its load while in the hands of 'Unqualified personnel.
• Because a driver is in charge of his vehicle and his load, so far as his employer is concerned, it is unreasonable to hold him responsible should control of them pass out of his hands.
This vagueness in the Bill is too real to be ignored. Not only might lorry drivers leaving this country, be affected, but the situation would be totally unacceptable to foreign lorry drivers coming in.
The C.F.D.C. is strongly con. vinced that pressure should be brought to bear during the whole passage of the Bill, and it has proposed its own amendment.