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Motor? Does someone in the industry deserve a pat on the back, or a dressing down? Drop us a line at Commercial Motor, Room H203, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS or Tax us on 020 8652 8971. Alternatively you can e-mail melanie.hammond@rbi.co.uk.
TAN21: WORTH WAITING FOR
The comprehensive introduction of the TAN21 system for computerised operating licensing, and the benefits it will bring for operators and enforcement agencies alike, has been
delayed ( Mreport/comment 11-17 Oct). Commercial Motor is critical and says we need it row, not later.
For years the Freight Transport Association has been campaigning for more efficient control of 0-licence details and for the introduction of a system that reduces traffic office administration and provides enforcement agencies with the very latest data in order to help them to catch the cowboys.
The removal of the 28-day notification period for licence variations has been a matter which FTA has very specifically targeted. The TAN 21 computer system represents more than two years' joint effort by government and industry to bring 0-licensing into the computer age. The fact that the original deadline was missed is not important, but in a quest to "get it right" was almost inevitable. What is vital is that when it is switched on it works reliably.
Certainly, all the evidence on this subject from the responses of the hundreds of delegates from the industry who have attended the recent series of FTA seminars and workshops suggests that the new system is very welcome.
Your attack on the TAN 21 system is a misjudgement. No operator would thank the government for delivering a system that did not work. The DoT should be complimented, not criticised, for ensuring that its customer service works rather than fails. This system must, and will, be got right. That is the reason for the delay. James Ilookham, Executive director, policy and training, FTA, Tunbridge Wells.
Editor's reply: It is because TAN21 offers so much to operators, enforcement agencies and trade associations alike that CM, along with many others in the industry, is frustrated by the delays in its implementation.
For many years CM has called for the impounding of unlicensed operators' vehicles. Throughout our campaign we have consistently been told that in order to make such an enforcement option truly effective we would need computerised record sharing among the enforcement agencies (JEDI) and, latterly a simplified, user-friendly, interactive, "real-time" 0licensing system (TAN21).
DRIVERS NEED MORE PAY:1
i write in reply to the letter from haulage boss Jean Sharpies. She is complaining that she cannot get quality drivers for £6 an hour for 50 hours plus £7/hr for overtime. This adds up to £370 for 60 hours' work. Can you call this a living wage? I work for a large logistics company and for 55 hours earn approximately 2450. That's 280 more for working five hours less—and even that's not enough. If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
Roll on the impending 48hour week. The company I work for has let it be known they will not be reducing our wages. Not because they don't want to, but they know if they did that the drivers would leave in droves and go to work for an agency for £10/hr.
Paul Askew, Peterstield, Hants.
DRIVERS NEED MORE PAY: 2
I think Jean Sharpies ofJ Sharpies & Son Haulage (CM, 4-10 Oct) has answered her own question as to why she cant get drivers... 26 per hour up to 50 hours and overtime at 27/hr. What happened to overtime after 40 hours? And overtime at time-and-a-half? On that basis she should be paying 29/hr overtime.
Who wants to chase around like a lunatic on tipper work when you could earn the same money on the agency and have a social Ile.
Anstice, CA Transport.
DRIVERS NEED MORE PAY: 3
I read with interest the letters section of your magazine, and the most common theme of late is the apparent driver shortage.
I am one of the many who have deserted the profession in pursuit of better things, and feel I must tell you why: long hours, poor profit margins, demanding delivery schedules and a wage packet that, quite frankly, you're embarrassed tc show to anybody.
These are just the symptoms, I feel, of a greater problem—poor management.
The industry as a whole has been mismanaged for years, and if there is no alteration of current management practices, the UK transport industry will cease to exist.
It is all too easy to blame all of the usual suspects for how dire things have become. But who negotiates and agrees to these uneconomical and unfeasible contracts? The management.
These ineffective management practices will continue to blight the industry as long as drivers are promoted to positions of authority without any professional training.
If management were capable of negotiating contracts, they wouldn't have profit margins so slim that they cannot afford to pay drivers their worth.
Symon Bradeley, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs.
DRIVERS NEED MORE PAY: 4
I read with interest and great amusement the comments of Jean Sharpies (0144-10 Oct).
Basic working weeks are normally regulated as 37 or 40 hours a week, not 50. Many companies pay time-and-a-hall after 40 hours—not 50 hours. And she says that she pays an extra £1/hr over the what I would consider paltry basic rate for overtime. No wonder our industry has such a shortage of drivers.
Drivers are the most regulated; put upon, blamed; under-valued; and skilled professionals and are put under more strains and stresses than any other profession.
RP ileresford, Hemel Hempstead, Herts.