Drivers blame port for excessive hours
Page 9
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
II Long delays at Felixstowe Port are forcing drivers on container work to give up their nightly rest and exceed their drivers' hours, say some drivers using the port.
One owner-driver, John Beckett, complains of waiting times at Trinity Terminal of about six hours.
He says the delays at Felixstowe Port are forcing hauliers to break the law with drivers being stopped for tachograph offences because they have exceeded their drivers' hours. And some have to give up their nightly rest to remain in the queue, which poses some safety risks, he says. "We are kept waiting all night and the next day we have no proper break," says Beckett. Other drivers, who have asked not to be named, endorsed Beckett's views.
Felixstowe employs a number of third-party contractors including Taylor Barnard and Russell Davies.
But Russell Davies Container Transport says the company has no complaints about waiting times over the past few weeks. Some congestion is caused by hauliers coming back into the port for their inbound traffic from 15:00hrs-19:00hrs but this is the nature of container work, says the company.
Port managing director Peter Bennett admits there may have been some delays to hauliers. "But I don't accept the sort of delays you have mentioned," he says. "The average waiting time is 30-50 minutes. For a small percentage arriving at peak time it can be two hours or so."