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Agricultural team for WTD
Page 18
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The trade associations are banding together to create a VVTD buffer zone for agricultural hauliers. Guy Sheppard reports.
FIVE TRADE associations have joined forces to minimise the effects of the 48-hour working week on hauliers working in agriculture. They have drawn up a blueprint for removing potential bottlenecks in the supply chain and are now urging members to adopt it.
Measures include speeding up turnaround times at delivery points which has long been one of the main gripes of hauliers in the sector.
John Burgess, MD of DJ Christmas in East Sussex, explains that it frequently takes two hours to load 29 tonnes of grain at a farm when it should only take half an hour.
There's also a problem with unloading. "Allied Mills in Tilbury is one of the better mills," he adds. "But in April it was taking us an average of 90 minutes to deliver there when it should only take half that."
Burgess welcomes any efforts to mitigate the effects of the Working Time Directive but warns that driver shortages are already putting the sector under severe pressure.
The trade associations that drew up the blueprint include the Agricultural Industries Confederation, the National Farmers Union and the Road Haulage Association.
Ruth Pott, RHA head of employment affairs, updated the group about the impact of the Directive which comes into force in March.
She says: "The intention is to encourage best practice so all relevant parties do their bit to help drivers to actually mitigate the consequences of the Directive."
Jeremy Smith, company secretary of the AIC, warns that the sector faces considerable disruption unless the blueprint is adopted and the government agrees to be flexible when implementing the Directive.