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Safe drivers suddenly unsafe
Page 24
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THE RECENT battles over the proposed Working Time Directive legislation have brought about some interesting skirmishes between the owner-drivers and operators (Proctor, Martin, Robinson et al).
However, it would be beneficial if the industry could approach the topic with a united voice: united we stand, divided we fall and all that.
Barry Proctor's recent article re-affirms most people's thinking on this subject: that this legislation is ostensibly on health and safety grounds. However, the battle now seems not to be so much against the legislation as against the owner-drivers who are likely to achieve an opt-out for a further few years. I can't help wondering what the ferocity of this attack by the operators is all about. Perhaps they fear they will be 'screwed' by owner-drivers who see the opportunity to undercut them and pinch their business in view of the
likely increased costs faced by the operators. Is this a realistic possibility? Well, owner-drivers are just that, owner-drivers, and therefore are unlikely to have the size and ability to take contracts of any size away from the operators unless they can expand, in which case they would become employers themselves and fall under the WTD, which would be
rather self-defeating. Without the economies of scale that the big operators have any substantial undercutting is likely just to lead to bankruptcy
The other factor is that the legislation affects working time, not driving time. Owner-drivers will not suddenly have any increased capability to do substantially more work—current driving time regulations won't allow it.
The operators are now up in arms that ownerdrivers will be "unsafe" if they are allowed to be exempt from the WTD. But hang on a minute, are they saying that they themselves have been running unsafe operations for all these years?
Just months ago they were saying the legislation was unnecessary and that driving hours regulations ensured the safety of all. Now they are saying that should owner-drivers be allowed to carry on under existing legislation, they would suddenly become unsafe.
Having your cake and eating it anyone?
My own understanding of the social impact of the legislation is that employees will not feel forced or threatened (directly or by implication) to work extended hours.The self-employed, as their own employers, do not face the same threat.
I hope, for the sake of the haulage industry, that we can approach this and other subjects with a single, united voice. Perhaps operators can then look at how to tackle some spectacularly low driver wages — despite a shortfall of 50,000 drivers! Name and address supplied