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I'm sure we'll get through it but I'm not certain how
Page 66
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Austin Caulfield braces himself for the arrival of 'WTD Day", and wonders it there is any way out of the country's permanent jam.
S0 "wrD Day" is about to cast its long shadow upon us. and I imagine you are probably no better equipped than we are to deal with the Working Time Directive. Sure, we've done our best to have our house in order and made Nostradamuslike predictions over its effects on the business. But Hunt Bros will not know exactly how difficult the legislation will be to implement until we actually begin working within its limits.
However, we all have to make the effort.and our interpretation tells us we have to make full use of the mode switch, along with a revamped time sheet and a headto-head with the drivers.
I have spent a lot of time explaining to my employees what they need to be doing to keep within the law. If anything is to come out of this it will be that my drivers can never say they were not aware of what the law is! But I imagine it is much the same for all of you, With a little luck, and after much frank discussion with our customers and our ever-resourceful drivers, we will be able to make it work. Let's see.
Spend billions
A leading professor said this week that we need to spend billions on the road network in order to remain competitive within Europe. Well. the ground didn't shake and funnily enough. Heaven didn't burst open wide spilling all its angels at this earthquivering announcement. Has nobody been listening to the haulage industry for the past 10 years? Evidently not.
The whole road network is falling apart. Every motorway is chock-a-block, seven days a week. The amount of money we could save if our trucks weren't caught in a jam somewhere would run into thousands. In fact, the cost to us all is billions of pounds.
Gordon Brown must be rubbing his hands together every day with more and more fuel taxes cascading into the Treasury coffers. I didn't notice much in his Budget that would suggest he is eager to sort the problem out. We are that far behind the rest of Europe I think it's fair to say we will never catch up.
One simple solution is what CM's Pushing 50 campaign is trying to hammer home: I would support 50mph on single carriageways. It is needed, it will help traffic flow and it might make some of the lunatic drivers we see every day on the UK's roads stop taking chances by overtaking and risking life and limb. •