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WTD poses threat to industry
Page 26
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YOUR CORRESPONDENT Robert DodsBrown (CM 20 January) has prompted me to write the letter that has been rolling round my head for the past few months. I find myself in an identical situation, ie 35 years in the industry, after starting as an owner-driver with my son who I encouraged to join the business on leaving school. Now, 20 years later, he runs the company, controlling a modest fleet of 25 vehicles. But I regret having encouraged him to enter this way of life, which involves constant pressure, long hours and now an uncertain future.
We will try very hard to adapt to the Working Time Directive (WTD), but my initial thoughts are that it will be unworkable. This could be a tragedy for one small family-run business, but the greater problem is that a very high proportion of this industry is made up similar-sized operations, which mainly work for smallto medium-sized companies.
They usually have very close but informal relations with their customers and cope with constant changes to production schedules, problems with raw materials supply and end user demands. This adds up to one key requirement on the part of the transport provider: flexibility. The WTD will remove this key element, introduce operational inefficiencies and could ultimately destroy this very important sector of our industry. Who then will provide a service to these smallto medium-sized manufacturers and distributors?
If the government argues this legislation is based on safety considerations, why then are the self employed/owner-drivers exempt? While there are some very good and law-abiding examples out there, the pressures, temptations and opportunities to flout the hours and maintenance legislation are far greater with this type of operation. Surely the implementation of the WTD should start here?
Maybe there are some like-minded hauliers out there who have similar fears. Is there scope for some general co-operation and exchange of traffic through a system of strategic alliances perhaps part funded and encouraged by a government determined to impose this — to my mind unworkable legislation?
Brian R Patefield Brian R Patefield Ltd Bradford