Hauliers accused of scorning hours regs
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by David Harris and Miles Brignktll • Hauliers are routinely choosing to avoid dealing with drivers who break hours regulations because it suits them to do so, claim tachograph analysts. One analyst says in a letter to CM this week that his work is often used as a cosmetic exercise because hauliers never do anything to put abuses right.
He adds that that until a better system is in place both operators and drivers will constantly abuse drivers' hours laws to gain a competitive edge in the market (see Letters, page 24).
Even Senior Traffic Commissioner Michael Betts admits that it is difficult for the professional analysts to do much about the abuse of driving hours laws by drivers and operators.
"These people are in a client relationship with the person who pays them to do the analysis," he says. "They can provide them with the information, hut they can't make them act on it and I don't think we can expect them to. We look forward to a new, improved tachograph system but I have little doubt that however clever a new tacho system is, somebody will work out how to cheat it."
None of the analysts criticising operators are prepared to be named, because it is their customers they are criticising.
One analyst who did go on the record, Nigel Kirkwood of Tachograph Analysis Consultants, paints a slightly more optimistic picture.
"It's quite clear cut," he says. "We can provide information to the operator, but we can't force people to do anything...having said that, many operators do ask us to do more if a particular problem is highlighted. Some even ask us to talk to their drivers. This may be because many of our clients are blue-chip companies."