EEC plumps for shorter driving hours
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BREAKTHROUGH ON COMMON MARKET TRANSPORT POLICY HERALDS TOUGH NEW REGULATIONS: EUROPEAN HAULIERS PROTEST
from a special correspondent • A daily driving limit of 9 hours, and a weekly limit of 50 hours, with reductions to 8 hours and 48 hours respectively in two years' time, is proposed under new regulations which the Common Market countries have agreed as part of a five-point plan that now goes forward for ratification by member governments. And the new regulations on driving hours will be applied to foreign vehicles in transit through the Six.
Agreement on the five major points forming part of a common transport policy came at 4 a.m. on Friday after a meeting of the Council of Ministers in Brussels lasting a whole day and night. This measure of agreement follows more than five years of frustration and disarray on EEC transport policy, and even this step leaves many main points unresolved.
Immediately the terms of the agreement Were known, Continental road transport interests, represented by the EEC road transport liaison committee, denounced the proposals in strong terms. There was consternation that their fragmentary nature would provide no proper harmonization of rules; that the allegedly compulsory rates system had "countless exceptions" which would negate its main intentions; that there would be neither ' taxation nor vehicleweight-limit equality between the countries concerned; and that the social provisions— notably for drivers' hours—would place road transport in an inferior competitive position compared with other modes. The Council of Ministers reached agreement on the following five main points: .
(1) A total of 1,200 international .road transport permits is to be authorized under a Community quota. These authorizations will give holders the legal right to operate goods vehicles freely throughout the six countries of the EEC, regardless of existing bilateral quotas or national licensing permits. Each memberState will, before the end of the year, distribute among its hauliers the international licences allocated on a national basis; these comprise 286 for France, 286 for Germany, 240 for Holland, 194 for Italy, 161 for Belgium and 33 for Luxembourg. Each licence will be valid for one vehicle. They will be valid for the three years 1969-71 and it is hoped that they will be followed by more liberal measures based on a greater equality of operating conditions among the member States.
(2) Specific rules have been laid down concerning which agreements, groupings and mergers among transport operators are either permitted or inadmissible. The purpose is to ban "monopoly" agreements about the division of the transport market, price rings and discrimination. But there are exceptions aimed at encouraging co-ordination which could lead to technical improvements and greater efficiency, and the establishment of smalland medium-sized groups or companies will be permitted where the total road transport carrying capacity involved does not exceed 10,000 tons.
(3) Since fuel taxes still differ from coun
try to country within the Six, the admission of fuel duty-free in vehicles' own tanks when crossing frontiers will be limited to the 50 litres authorized from January 1 1969—but as national taxes come into line this concession will be extended.
(4) From October 1969 for international transport, and from October 1970 for national transport, new standards will be adopted for professional drivers' hours, rest periods, composition of crews and minimum driving age. Negotiations with non-EEC States will be aimed at bringing AETR provisions (covering other European countries) and EEC. regulations into line. An important point is that the rules on driving hours and rest periods will apply to both EEC and non-EEC registered vehicles (e.g. British) for journeys or parts of journeys 'undertaken within Common Market frontiers.
Hitherto the EEC has proposed a driving day of 9 hours and a maximum driving week of 54 hours. But the new regulations are more restrictive.
For goods vehicles and combinations up to 20 tons gross weight, daily driving time will be limited to 9 hours (which can be extended to 10 hours twice a week), with a maximum of 4-1hours continuous driving between each half-hour rest period. Maximum driving hours per week will be 50. Two years after these limits take effect they will be reduced to 48 hours driving a week, 92 hours a fortnight and only 8 hours a day (but with 9 hours permitted twice a week); continuous driving between rest periods will be limited to 4 hours.
For goods vehicles and combinations over 20 tons gross there will be even tougher limits. If the distance travelled between two consecutive rest periods exceeds 450 Km. the driver must be accompanied by a second driver or must be replaced at the wheel by another driver at the 4501an. mark. Right from the start of the new regulations, there will be an 8-hour daily driving limit with no permitted exceptions. This must be divided into two periods of not more than 4 hours separated by one hour's rest, or there may be two rest periods of 30tnin each; but in any case the limit for continuous driving will be 4 hours.
For all goods vehicles there must be, from the start of the new rules, at least 11 hours rest for a driver in a period of 24, except that twice a iveek this may be cut to 9 hours in 24 if rest is taken at the home base, or 8 hours rest twice a week if it is taken at a point away from home. For bus and coach drivers there must be at least 10 hours rest in 24; or, if 11 hours rest is normally taken then there may be two occasions a week when it is only 9 hours, away from base, or 10 hours at the home base.
Under the new proposals, vehicles up to 7.5 tons gross may be handled by drivers at least 18 years old; over that weight, the minimum age limit will be 21 years—except for drivers aged 18-21 who hold a special licence of professional competence.
Both goods and passenger drivers will be issued with a personal log-book on the lines of that proposed in Britain.
(5) It is agreed that compulsory published forked rates for road haulage will take effect from a common date, but the actual date on which this will be promulgated cannot yet be announced; since negotiations are expected to take about a year, this is likely to be in the autumn of 1969.
What has been agreed is that the system will apply to international road transport and that there will be a 23 per cent spread between the upper and lower rates permitted on each traffic. This provision for flexibility in charging is a compromise figure agreed in the face of demands for a narrower (20 per cent) spread from France and Germany and a more liberal (30 per cent) figure which the Dutch favour.
The published rates will not apply to regular contract traffic (roughly equivalent to arrangements made under Contract A licences in Britain). But there are many restrictions on the types of contract traffic which are excluded from forked rates tariffs, among them a requirement that at least 500 tons are carried under such a contract in any quarter of a year.
The Ministers discussed the proposed limitations on state aid for transport, but gave no ruling on this point. Nor were they prepared to lay down guide lines for abolishing double taxation on goods vehicles. They have, however, agreed to adopt a regulation on this subject by October 15 on the basis that vehicles will pay a pro rata tax to the countries they pass through but will then be able to claim an equivalent-period tax refund from the home nation in which the vehicle is registered. Alternatively, bilateral agreements to waive tax may be agreed by member States, so that a vehicle may only pay tax in its country of registration.
The new driving hours proposed for the Common Market compare with a daily driving limit of 10 hours and a weekly limit of 60 hours which the Government intends to introduce next spring in Britain under the • Transport Bill. These are interim figures but even when the second stage is brought in, this will only limit driving hours to nine a day and the weekly limit will stay at 60.
Road cuts are shortsighted, says Viva Shield winner
• Criticism of cuts in road spending, and of lower constructional standards, was voiced by the Ministry of Transport's recently retired director of highway engineering last week. Mr. J. F. Allan Baker was speaking at the election court dinner of the Worshipful Company of Carmen, at which he was presented with the Viva Shield and gold medal for 1967. The shield is the trophy which the Carmen give each year in recognition of the most meritorious contribution to transport improvement.
Mr. Baker was chosen as the recipient for his work as chief road engineer, and later highway engineering director, in pioneering the development of motorways in Britain, and for anticipating the road-design requirements of future goods and passenger traffic. In fact he is regarded by many as the "father" of Britain's motorways; during his speech he recorded his part in their development in the post-war years.
Reminding his audience that roadbuilding finance had grown from a paltry £3.5in in 1954-5 to £140m in 1964-5, he said it was sad to see a slowing of the road programme, and particularly motorway building, over the past three years. He was critical, too, of the lowering of construction standards for short-term economic reasons, and was certain that this was a retrograde step which would come to be regretted.
He thought the time had come to expand the specifications for motorways: he would like to see 12ft-wide hard shoulders which could be used as running lanes when other lanes were closed for repair, and he suggested that a 3511-wide central division would be a good investment, not least in overcoming dazzle problems and resolving the need for crash barriers.
He emphasized how it must always be remembered that roads were being built for future traffic needs—not present ones—and he instanced the case of Ml, "the fastest-built motorway in the world", where he had had to fight for the lane and verge widths finally adopted because they were thought by some to be much too great.
• The offer by Transport Development Group Ltth for the issued share capital of Bain and Hodge Ltd. has been withdrawn. The Board of TDG, says a statement announcing this decision, has been influenced by the evident unreliability of the financial information available about B and H".