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T&G slams 'wasted opportunity' THE TRANSPORT & General Workers Union
Page 9
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has accused the road transport industry of wasting a vital opportunity to modernise the industry in its negotiations over the Road Transport Directive.
Speaking at the Road Haulage Association's Spring Seminar, T&G national transport secretary Ron Webb said the industry should realise that driver shortages "will not be sorted out by saying 'Come and join us in a low pay, long hours job—. He warned that this "complacent attitude" must change when negotiations over the Lorry Road User Charge begin. "No-one had balls big enough to be blunt to the Department for Transport over this," he added. "We wasted a wonderful opportunity to get a 48-hour week and if we had held out long enough it would have been our client base [haulage customers] that would have been forced to pay for it."
Webb also lambasted what he described as VOSA's "soft touch approach" to the WTD.
• The RHA's Ruth Pott reports that the Department for Transport will review its guidance on the RTD — but not the regulations themselves — in the coming weeks.