MISINTERPRETATION • The first letter in the first article in
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your "Any Questions" (Commercial Motor 15-21 December 1988) deals with an issue on which the FTA frequently receives enquiries. Unfortunately, the answer that was given was incorrect.
The EC regulations on drivers' hours and tachographs do not include any general exemptions for drivers who actually drive for only very short periods on the public highway. The FTA has long felt that such a concession was necessary, but unfortunately the way the regulations are currently written there can be no doubt that a shunt driver who takes a vehicle, even for limited distances, on to a road to which the public has access is subject to the EC hours' rules and should maintain a tachograph record.
The reference your consultant makes to the Driver's Hours (Keeping of Records) Regulations 1987 is irrelevant. These regulations concern drivers of vehicles not covered by the EC rules and the concession, therefore, does not apply to drivers subject to the EC rules. From the information in the question it would appear to me beyond doubt that the vehicles in question are subject to the EC rules.
D C Green,
Director — Road Transport, & Parliamentaty Affairs, Freight Transport Association, Tunbridge Wells, Kent.