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Page 30
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The Scots have been banned, the Welsh have been banned and this summer the English will be banned from smoking in enclosed spaces too. How will the workplace smoking
ban affect your operation? David Harris investigates.
Truck drivers in England have less than three months left to enjoy a cigarette on the open road. On 1 July English law will come into line with what has already happened in the rest of the UK: smoking in the workplace will be banned. In almost every case, that ban will include the cab of a truck.
The one exception, potentially, is for owner-drivers — a Department of Health (DoH) spokeswoman confirmed last week that "an owner-driver can smoke as long as nobody else uses his vehicle".
But as both the Freight Transport Association (ETA) and the Road Haulage Association (RHA) are quick to point out, it is debatable whether anybody is the sole user of their truck. A spokeswoman for the RHA points out: "The rule says that if anyone else uses your cabal any time then you aren't allowed to smoke. So what about when the vehicle is in for inspection or servicing?"
Pragmatic application The ETA thought the issue of owner-drivers being allowed to smoke under the new law was important enough to ask for a ruling from the Donlan Gallagher, the ETA's specialist on the smoking legislation,says:"The reply wasn't particularly clear. It just said it would take each case on its merits and apply the law in a 'pragmatic' way."
Make of that what you will,but for its part the government is keen to stress that the new regulations are going to be policed more by gentle persuasion and advice than by enforcing rules with an iron rod.
A DoH spokeswoman says: "We see compliance with these regulations developing in a similar way to no smoking rules on the Underground or other public transport. It will simply become unacceptable for people to smoke — and if they do so at work, their colleagues will start to police it with their disapproval." In line with this idea of making smoking even more widely socially unacceptable, the DoH says: -Nobody, including the police, is going to be stopping a moving vehicle just because somebody is smoking. The most that might happen is that an officer could take the licence number and contact the firm later to tell them what was happening".
Workplace inspections In fact,the police are not being regarded as the enforcers of the new rules at all.That role will be left to local authority environmental health teams,which will make inspections of workplaces, including haulage yards, and give advice on how to comply with the new law.
Roth the RHA and ETA are relaxed about the new regulations, although there is an undertone of irritation at their perceived lack of clarity.The RHA spokeswoman says: "It does get a bit fuzzy. What's the position of foreign drivers, for example? Are they going to be stopped for smoking in their cabs? I don't think so."
in Scotland, where similar restrictions came in last year, the RHA says it has heard of a number of drivers being warned for smoking in their cabs, but not of anybody being prosecuted. This would be in tune with the DoH's declared soft approach to enforcement.
The FTA's Gallagher says:"As an organisation we haven't made a conscious decision to approve or disapprove of the regulations, but the consensus is that many of our members think it is overdue."
This is underlined by the fact that many ETA members already have non-smoking policies in place, including smoking bans in cabs.
One of the most important things for operators now, Gallagher suggests, is to make sure their drivers understand their responsibilities: "In some cases contracts of employment should be rewritten to include the fact that smoking in a cab is unacceptable. Otherwise it is possible that companies could be held liable for offences committed by their drivers." m