'We can manage without tachographs' Mulley
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BRITAIN could enforce its hours regulations without tachographs, the Minister for Transport said last week.
Mr Mulley told the Road Haulage Association's annual dinner in London that there would be problems in implementing drivers' hours and tachograph regulations due to come into force next January. The Minister then added : "I was indeed pleased to have such striking testimony from RHA, FTA and TGWU] of my statement in the House last summer that as far as I knew neither side of our industry wanted anything to do with tachographs. It should also be understood that on the Continent their purpose is to help enforce the drivers' hours regulations and to restrain the pirate operators whereas we can manage to do that without them, although, of course, no one would claim 100 per cent success in That direction."
After explaining how criticism of the lorry could sometimes be misinformed, Mr Mulley said the plain fact was that unless people were prepared to pay very much more for the goods in the shops— and the signs were, quite rightly, that they were not—a healthy road haulage industry was essential to our economy.
Continued the Minister: "But it is not just at home that we need to provide the right conditions for the haulage industry. We must do this abroad too, and more particularly in Europe, where there are at present restrictions, sometimes severe, on the international • movement of goods by road. Since we joined the Common Market we have been pressing for a more liberal approach to transport matters and I am glad that we have been having considerable effect. It is noticeable nowadays that papers and proposals produced in Brussels are increasingly showing signs of this liberal influence.
"I have made it clear since I have been going to meetings of the Council of Transport Ministers in Brussels that objective is to achieve mately a system whereby hauliers can travel to Ett] without permits, permiss or any unreasonable res tions, whenever they war do assure you that it is on the most frustrating aspect life both for me and my c cated officials in Newc4 that we cannot produce permits to meet the n applications we receive I your members and still hav ration them severely. Ii simply that we cannot enough—despite increases, example, this year of 25 cent in the French and 20 cent in the German quol