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Pack it in
Page 36
Page 37
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The smoking ban in Scotland extends to truck cabs. Drivers can now be fined £50 every time they light up — and their bosses pay
£200. Adam Hill reports.
Truck drivers in Scotland are no longer allowed to light a fag in their cabs — the smoke will no doubt be replaced by fuming indignation at this loss of liberty.
The blanket ban on smoking in workplaces and public places came into force last month under the Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Prohibition of Smoking in Certain Premises (Scotland) Regulations 2006. And it doesn't only affect Scottish drivers in their own country — it covers every truck driver who ventures north of the border.
Even for die-hard 50-a-day merchants, the health benefits of quitting the weed are impossible to dispute. But there are obvious enforcement problems when trying to stop an individual fighting up when he's alone in his cab.
Alan Brunton from Sandy Bruce Trucking of Coatbridge. Lanarkshire, says:"It's early days and it seems to be accepted by drivers, but it's difficult to police in the cab." The new regs state that "authorised officers of the local council will enforce the law-. There's no mention of the police getting involved, which means it is going to be down to environmental health officers. And they will surely have to rely in the main on smokers being shopped, either by their colleagues or by members of the public who are incensed to see drivers ruining their health. A so-called 'national compliance' phoneline, charged at local rates, will allow the public to turn informer.
According to the Scottish Executive, which passed the new smoking law, environmental health officers policing the anti-smoking regs will use the same procedures they employ with businesses in areas such as food safety or health and safety.
They will have the power to enter cabs and will be required to decide if the person in control of the vehicle (usually the operator) has taken all reasonable steps to stop anyone smoking in the cabs. They may engage in -covert surveillance" before identifying themselves. Nicotine addicts would be well advised to look out for teams of health officers hanging around truckstops.
So as a transport manager, what do you do if drivers simply ignore the smoking ban and light up in their cab? The law suggests that you implement your existing disciplinary procedure as it relates to antisocial or illegal behaviour in the workplace. You should also maintain a record of all such incidents and their outcomes. Gerard Palmer. transport manager of Hun tapac Produce, is based in England but the fleet makes regular deliveries to Scotland. He is all to well aware of the problems: "Do we put smoke detectors in the cab? The batteries can be taken out. And if we install tamperproof alarms, what do we do? Have them connected to a satellite alarm that rings my mobile when a driver lights up?"
There is, as yet, no requirement for trucks operating in Scotland to be retrofitted with smoke alarms. But the cabs do now have to be fitted with No Smoking' signs. Unlike the signs that businesses have to display on their premises, there's no legal requirement on the size of these signs. But they must: • State that the vehicle is no-smoking and warn that it is an offence to smoke or knowingly to permit smoking in the cab • Display the international 'No Smoking' symbol • Display the holder of a particular post (such as a manager) to whom a complaint may be made by anyone who sees someone smoking.
Samples of suitable signs can be downloaded from www.dearingtheairscotland.com and whatever you might have heard, there is no ambiguity at all in the legislation about the need for operators to install the signs.
Company cars (and prisons) are exempt from the new legislation, so it's hard not to conclude that truck drivers who want to have a fag are getting a raw deal. After all, very few company car users live in their vehicle for days at a time. But for the 50,000 or so truck drivers based in Scotland and the thousands more that visit the country the message is clear: whether you are on the road or parked up for the night you and your boss risk prosecution if you light up a cigarette.