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FTA and RHA call for staggered VIIID
Page 6
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FTA calls for staged introduction to VVTD. Dominic Perry reports.
Exclusive!
THE ROAD TRANSPORT industry has made a last ditch attempt to stave off the full impact of the Working Time Directive, by writing to the government requesting a staggered start date. FTA chief executive Richard Turner says: "It would have been
safer and better if the 48-hour limit had been introduced in stages. There are a number of precedents for such an approach in the transport industry." The WTD is due to come into force in March next year. But Turner, with the backing of Roger
King, chief executive of the RHA, has asked Transport Minister David Jamieson to phase in its introduction, moving to a 54-hour week next year, 50 hours in 2006 and 48 hours in 2007.
This would mean a more gradual impact on both the transport industry and the UK economy, allowing firms to make their customers more aware of increased costs.
He adds: "Quite frankly a sudden 15%, or even 10% increase in transport costs for many businesses next March will permanently damage them. If we are, as claimed, one of the hardest working economies in Europe working the longest hours, then the 48-hour limit will hit our economy hardest and there is a good case for a phased approach. "We all feel this is a very big hill for the industry to climb and there
is a danger that neither side will get what they want at the moment."
The main obstacle to Turner's suggestion will be the Transport and General union which has welcomed the introduction of the WTD, seeing it as the only route to better pay and conditions for its members.
During CM'S round table, national road transport secretary Ron Webb did offer a small concession: "It's something I might have a look at. If the government came to us with a plan for a staggered implementation we'd come to the table and talk." However, a T&G spokesman says it will be impossible to say how the union would react until it had firm proposals in front of it.
So far there has been no reply to the industry's request from the Department for Transport.
• For more on the WTD see pg 32.