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WTD 'will boost costs by 20 0 /0/
Page 16
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David Craik reports on an agency hire boss who expects to profit from the VVTD
THE BOSS of Driver Hire Preston says he will "charge what he likes" when the Working Time Directive comes into force because operators will be so desperate for drivers they will be forced to use agencies Steve Lloyd predicts: "Operators will face a 15-20% hike in rates. They will have no other option than to use us because of the WTD; that includes those companies who don't use driving agencies at present."
Lloyd reveals that Driver Hire is currently looking at the legal aspects of the WTD: "We are investigating whether our drivers can be classed as self-employed under the legislation.
"But I doubt this; I think the Inland Revenue will find enough technicalities to stop us."
Despite thinking that he will "do well" out of the WTD. Lloyd backtracked when he met West Lancashire, Labour MP Cohn Pick thall."I told him that Labour will be in power next year when the WTD arrives and because of the driver shortages the public will soon be complaining when there is no milk or bread in the supermarkets. Coming before an election this could rock Labour.
-The top ministers are not fully aware of the implications," he adds "I think that nobody in the DfT speaks to them."
Pickthall, who is parliamentary private secretary to Foreign Secretary Jack Straw,says he was "una ware of the WTD implications for the haulage industry as he suspects many Labour back-benchers are".
He used his conversation with Lloyd as the basis for a question to Transport Secretary David Jamieson in the Commons. "I asked him whether his department had made an estimate of the number of HGV drivers needed by the industry in 2005,2006 and 2007", says Pickthall. "I was told that no detailed estimates had been made."
He has offered to ask supplementary questions in the Commons but Lloyd suggests he should not waste his breath, saying: "He will just get the same non-committal answers,"