Wake up!
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I wish all the people who are trying to bring our road haulage under EEC regulations would think of the driver for once. If the driver is to comply with EEC regulations, surely he should have their working conditions, or at least some of them.
Transport cafés and digs are almost non-existent; the few there are could be counted on two hands. Motorway services provide a transport room, which is more often closed than .open.
Other EEC vehicles are, in most cases, far superior to ours — the home manufacturers are just waking up.
A wage of £1 per hour was brought in two years ago, but a lot of firms got round this by paying £1 right through, instead of time-and-a-half after 40 hours.
Very few other EEC drivers load or unload their vehicles. In this country drivers have no choice (with far too few exceptions).
The sleeper cab vehicle is not recognised by the unions. They have done so little for drivers over the past few years, that they don't realise most countries use them for resting in whilst the vehicle is being loaded or unloaded, etc. Proper sleeping is done in motels.
The other EEC countries pay more for a night's stop than we do, but the conditions are far better and so are their wages.
P. W. GODFREY, Long-distance tanker driver, King's Lynn, Norfolk.