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Page 73
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IV
by Frank Woodward
rivers' hours: lenge must come
HE MAXIMUM permissible igth of a driver's working day ll be reduced to 11 hours from e present total of 14;. .. the iw 11 hours limit will include 'allowance of no more than 9 iurs actually at the wheel of a !hide, compared with the 11 )urs out of the present 14.. "Measures will be taken to reamline the work of enforcing e observance of the law and to crease the effectiveness of the aminers whose job it is." The above are extracts from e White Paper Transport of eight presented to Parliament November 1967 — the gredients of which were eluded in the Transport Bill the !lowing year.
Proposals contained in most 'hite Papers always appear to ake sense, and I am sure that ) UK transport operator would )ject if the above proposals ere now on the Statute Book. It is when the legislation is laid .ifore Parliament — National or EC — and "everyone" attempts seek some dispensation hich will give a particular dustry or section of the )mmunity an advantage, that le final result becomes a mess. What are the EEC Driver's ours Regulations? To say the ast, they do not equate to the K National Driver's Hours egulations.
The "EEC Rules" as written -e the International Operators ules, and are very simple:
apply to all vehicles xceeding 3.5 tonnes gvw continuous driving limited to )ur hours daily driving limited to eight ours weekly driving limited to 48 Ours fortnightly driving limited to 2 hours breaks from driving are equired after four hours ontinuous driving and vary ietween one hour for articulated nd trailer vehicles over 20
3 n nes gvw, to three breaks of
5 minutes spread over the four lours for other vehicles daily rest period of not less han 11 hours in a 24 hour period weekly rest period of 29 consecutive hours preceded or followed by a daily rest period (total 40 hours).
The above Rules are clear, easily enforced and if applied to the whole of the Community would make a lot of sense.
The UK, however, decided to retain the "working day" limitations. Why? The UK decided to have three sets of Rules. Why? I am quite sure that no one who has had the responsibliity for framing this legislation has ever examined in sufficient detail the daily work of the average UK goods vehicle driver — this would mean spending at least 3-6 months "doing the job" — not just seeing it from the sidelines.
The objective of placing a limit on driving hours is safety — the White Paper of 1967 uses the words "to combat the build up of fatigue" — and yet the drivers who are subjected to the fatigue of "loading and unloading" their vehicles on delivery rounds are allowed, through exemptions, to work longer hours each day than the driver engaged on direct trunking, who never handles any part of the load.
Other privileged industries include furniture removals, milk deliveries, building and civil engineering — all are allowed to work three hours longer than the basic daily 11 hours.
Another example is the exemption from all duty and spreadover of a driver who does not drive for more than four hours each day. Such a person can be employed in a warehouse driving a forklift truck, stacking heavy loads and handling all kinds of other arduous tasks from the early hours of the morning till late at night, and then be sent out in a maximum weight truck to drive for up to four hours without having to comply with any limitations on his working or driving day. Where is the legislation to "combat fatigue"?
As I mentioned in my previous tachograph article, the drivers of the Post Office and Gas Board trucks can all drive two hours more each day than drivers of general haulage vehicles travelling over identical routes.
The 1968 Transport Act intended a maximum nine hour driving day. Why this limit was not used for all those vehicles exempt from the EEC Regulations remains a mystery. Are changes in the EEC Regulations due?
A working document entitled Enforcement and revision of social regulations in road transport was issued by the Commission of the European Communities in February 1982. This uses such phrases as "more flexible rules and a better implementation of the improved legislation" and "disepssing with transport experts. suggesting means of improving Community wide enforcement of the Regulations."
The document closes with the sentence: "The discussions should be objective, without any positive or negative preconceptions, and open to suggestion for necessary or useful improvements."
Great words, and used with skill, but what will it mean?
What is the likely outcome of this document? The areas suggested for discussion may give a clue: — private driving — refrigerated vehicles — vehicles selling "door to door" — short journey vehicles — vehicles in remote areas — how much flexibility?
Most of the subjects have already been dealt with in the long list of exemption$ from the UK National Rules. These exemptions coupled with the elite band of truck drivers who are privileged to drive under the British Rules must make the task of enforcement within the UK almost impossible.
The change which would do most to ensure that fatigue from driving is kept under control, and safety in operation of the truck fleets is improved, is to adopt a single regulation to be applied across the whole of the Community, a regulation which is simple to understand, easy to enforce and free from all exemptions, except in the case of emergencies.
May I suggest that the UK put forward the proposals set out in the White Paper of 1967 — a 9 hour driving day, and an 11 hour working day within a maximum spread over.
Have the EEC Regulations improved road safety?
I doubt whether road safety has improved under the EEC Regulations although after five years of operating under the EEC rules some statistics from the Department of Transport would be helpful.
The key to improving road safety is enforcement — and to make this effective, serious consideration should be given to removing over half of the drivers from the scope of the Regulations.
Hours of work and driving at present apply to all drivers of vehicles constructed or adapted to carry goods ... irrespective of size or weight.
Exemptions take quite a lot of ,drivers and vehicles out of the work period limitations, but the limit on daily driving applies equally to the driver of the Escort van and the 38-tonne truck, and yet no controls are applied to the drivers of private cars, even on business.
In proposing changes to the EEC Regulations, a sensible approach would be to remove from the Regulations all vehicles below 7.5 tonnes gvw. This is the weight where an hgv driving licence is required, and all vehicles are already clearly identified with "rear markers" which would make checking and enforcement much easier.
With this change there should be no exemptions from any part of the Regulations, except the usual emergency rules.
Revision of the Regulations is urgent before the list of exemptions gets out of control. The RHA and the FTA have an important part to play in these discussions and should put aside the old ideas of seeking exemptions for some of their members, and press for more simple and effective Regulations, applicable to fewer vehicles and drivers and based on a higher vehicle gross weight.
The working document from Brussels contains the fo!lowing words: " . . . The Commission consider that it ought to be possible to reach a decision on what action should betaken to resolve these apparent difficulties speedily" Let us hope they really mean this.