Skipping 24 hours a day!
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It never fails to amuse me when I read about the grey areas of tachographs and especially last week's CM article titled "Tacho puzzle for skips" in which it was suggested that skip lorries carrying domestic waste are exempt from the tachograph regulations.
I thought the reason for tachographs was to protect drivers from working too many hours and becoming a danger on the road through tiredness, irrespective of whatever goods they carried.
Working at Heathrow, my typical day is driving one mile from the yard to British Airways Cargo, spending five hours asleep while waiting for the freight then driving 35 miles (40 minutes) to Gatwick, I then have another rest for about three hours and then drive back to leathrow. I have had eight hours sleep in 10 hours of duty hut cannot do any more work because the tacho regulations state I will exceed my duty hours.
I cannot earn any more money but a skip driver can work 24 hours a day without being checked.
Who is the more dangerous on the mad?
Perhaps if we all drive about with a bale of hay and bag of domestic waste in the back of our trucks we will get away with paying agricultural tax duly (L160 for a 38-tonne artic) and be exempt from tachos!
The most stressful time I suffer is my 48 hour break enforced by tacho regulations when during that time I have to push a trolley around "cesco's (far more stressful then the M25), get loads of paint and stuff from B&Q, and then spend all day Sunday putting the house back together.
I cannot wait to get back to work for a rest!
Kelvin Purcell, Wraysburv, Staines, Middlesex.
PS: What's the difference between a skip lorry and an Exocet missile?
Answer: About three miles an hour!