Fight the ban
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H"[laving read your article in Industry News, it now appears the French blanket Sunday driving ban is likely to come in.
Being an international haulier mainly involved with Spain and Portugal, this would have dire consequences for the efficient and profitable running of my business, as it would for hundreds of others.
The French are exhibiting a classic "dog in a manger" mentality: they don't want to work on Sundays themselves, and therefore don't want anyone else to do so either If it were environmentalists trying to stop the trucks running I could understand it, but it is the hauliers. I find it absolutely disgusting.
If they make this change the end result will be that British trucks will have to park up for 24 hours in some godforsaken truckstop or layby and then, come 22:00hrs on Sunday, all hell will break loose as hauliers race off to salvage lost time.
Thus not only will operators lose out, but drivers will be forced to sit around all day and drive all night.
What must be done is that everyone who would be affected by a ban should write to their MPs and MEPs as well as the Department of Transport (at 2, Marsham St, London SWI 3EB). We may all think this is a waste of time but if we don't, and the ban is imposed, we will have no right to complain.
Simon McCann,
Uttoxeter