KILLER MINISTRY
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Have hauliers not yet realised that the DOT's sole aim is to kit the road haulage industry? It is aiming for this joyous solution on the entirely false premise that all freight can travel by train, especially if competition has been suffocated by ever more complex rules and regulations with ever tightening conditions of operation (eg you can't flag out and work in the UK because you ain't European enough...French, German and Hungarian hauliers can though, because they live in Europe).
In other words, you can't have your cake OR eat it.
I have written to various ministers at the DOT: for all the
information I got back, I might just as well have consulted the Wizard of Oz.
The so-called Transport Forum is nothing but a cynical ploy to keep you talking (and arguing among yourselves) while central Government screws you into the ground.
As for the proposed 48hour maximum working week, that's the best idea I've heard from the EU yet. Why should people have to work 15 hours a day for six days a week to earn just enough to starve on? Why oh why do drivers feel the need to fiddle their tactic charts when they are already driven into the ground by ruthless bosses or customers?
Do you see Tesco tilloperators or Safeway warehousemen working 80 hours a week? No—because it cannot be done safely (and maybe they don't need the money!).
Once again I repeat, and will continue to repeat until someone does something: park up your wagons next Monday and by Wednesday teatime Gordon Brown will have cut VED and fuel tax in half to get you back on the road. You have nothing to lose but your livelihoods— anti John Prescott wants them on a plate, just to show what a clever little chappie he is.
But neither he, his henchmen at the DOT, nor his private army of vehicle inspectors, Traffic Commissioners, Customs officers, DSS "enforcers" or the
police can prosecute you for do they have access to lt,
taking a holiday, despite what they think.
And if you think Fast Eddie John Benton, or Exel will ride to the (GovernMoxley, West Midlands.
ment's) rescue, don't worry. They do not possess the equipment or manpower, nor