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You can't run a business on 47 hours per week
Page 28
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SINCE RESIGNING from my office job I have, in the last two years, taken and passed, both at the first attempt, my C and C+E tests. Recently I have also passed, again at the first attempt, my CPC. I have funded all of this myself out of my earnings —I do not have a stash of cash tucked away with which to indulge myself. My aim, some may say rather foolishly, is to set myself up as an ownerdriver. Because l am self-employed I do not currently come under the wretched working time directive (an EU policy to limit development and stop enterprise).
However, if what I understand is right. come 20091 will do.As a result I will not legally be able to work more than 47 hours per week.Assuming that !drive for the maximum each week I will not legally be able to do any other work, including cleaning my lorry, minor repairs, invoicing of customers and general paperwork. Will someone please tell me how to run a business, particularly in its early stages, on just 47 hours per week?
To me, this all smacks of a way of limiting free enterprise and stopping people who want to try and get on. Haven't we got enough idle buggers in this country already? Also, is there an unwritten policy to try to eliminate owner-drivers?
On top of this, we now have the driver's CPC. I hold a construction CPCS card. which recently expired as it is date-limited. I've got to pay to retake the touch-screen test and have some joker come and assess me on site if I wish to maintain it. won't be able to charge more for my services, it will just allow me to carry on working. I see the driver's CPC as being very similar, little more than a way of paying unproductive people to come and waste half a day of someone's time —for a fee. Most people reading this will at least hold a car licence. Do any of you have to renew it every five years? (Although driving 44 tonnes I see many people who shouldn't have a licence at all.) While there will always be some rogues,! think most lorry drivers operate at a very high level. They have to, simply to handle a lorry with the volume of traffic on our roads.
The road haulage industry has a pretty good safety record, so let's be positive and proactive in promoting the good aspects of it. While I don't have a problem with training, please don't let our industry be led down the road of more bureaucracy and more cost for little gain.
Comments please.
Name withheld by e-mail