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MEPs
• The European Commission could ban performance-related pay bonuses for lorry drivers because they encourage dangerous driving practices.
The proposal is part of a package of suggested changes to drivers' hours laws from Euro MPs who want tougher action against "cowboy" hauliers. The Commission, which is also being asked to set up a pan-European blacklist of companies which regularly break hours regulations, has a year to decide whether to incorporate the proposals in draft legislation to member governments.
Some MEPs have also called for night-time driving restrictions but this move has not been included in the final list accepted by the full European Parliament.
The Parliament has asked the Government to look at ways of banning existing systems of payment which are an "incentive to infringe" regulations on driving hours and rest periods "and pose a danger to road safety".
The MEPs single out payment by the hour and performance-related rewards by tonne or kilometre. They say that 75% of Europe's drivers are paid hourly, and it encourages them "to supplement what is often a low basic wage by working long hours of over time and attracting irregular hours supplements".
Performance-related pay is frowned-on in European Community law, they say, but about 7% of drivers are paid by the kilometre or tonne. The MEPs are warning: "This is at incentive to overload vehicles or spend too long at the wheel."
Bob Brady, managing director of T Brady of Barrow-inFurness, says he is totally against "trip money", where drivers are paid in accordance with the journeys they make.
Brady sees nothing wrong with bonuses if they are used "as ours are, to stop drivers breaking the law and at the same time aiding productivity" John McPherson of Ramsgate-based international haulier Romac says his men
re paid bonuses to look after ieir vehicles as well as for leir performance. Michael 'incent, fleet manager of Lonon garment-carrier Daly 'ransport Services, slams onuses as an incentive to reak the law and perform bad-. "In our business drivers ,ould become careless with leir calculations and this costs s money," he says.
Ron Low, deputy operations tanager with TNT, says drivrs there are paid bonuses, but
e does not accept that they Ce being tempted to break the w: "We can ensure higher roductivity without pushing le boat out".
The Road Haulage Associaon accuses MEPs of being ish. "People in the European arliament are standing up and iticising without offering ternatives."
A wages survey in Commer'al Motor this week has found at 52% of Britain's transport tanagers pay drivers bonuses veraging 228.92 per week. ome bosses pay a percentage
f salary as a reward: others ffer guaranteed overtime.