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Social law, not safety law
Page 30
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IN LAST WEEK'S Commercial Motor (11 March).Barry Proctor challenged the road safety credentials of the Freight Transport Association because it does not support the universal application of the Working Time Directive to multi-client self employed drivers.
Barry Proctor is right to raise this issue, but wrong to suggest that the WorkingTime Directive has anything to do with road safety. It is social legislation. Road safety is governed by the drivers' hours rules, which are far stricter in managing driving time.
The WorkingTime Directive is iniquitous legislation and this is coming home hard to operators as they start to look at the rules for next year, and particularly when they are negotiating with unions, which want the same pay for working fewer hours. The massive costs of dealing with these new rules are now becoming visible. Operators like Barry are getting worried about how their businesses will cope and their customers will react to price increases.
While the main rules are set we still have to get ministers to deliver on their promises to help us with the local rules over which they have jurisdiction.There are key issues such as night working limits (give us 12 hours) and periods of -availability"..and averag ing weekly work over 26 weeks.All can and will make a big difference to the costs and ultimately what you can afford to pay drivers.
If you are upset about this and you should be -join the chorus and make sure ministers are in no doubt about what we expect them to do.
Richard Turner Chief Executive Freight Transport Association