Levelling the field
Page 8
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A temporary exemption from the EC Working Time directive for ownerdrivers will, if carried through, doubtless make it easier for small hauliers to compete with the big boys, but at what price? Some ownerdrivers will welcome such an exemption as a chance to gain a competitive advantage, but others will be rightly concerned about not receiving the protection the directive is designed to provide.
And while owner-drivers may officially be their own bosses, we all know the power of customer pressure in this game...
Everyone in the industry understands the principle of a level playing field when it comes to fuel pricing around Europe. Shouldn't the same principle apply to working time?
Forty-eight hours is probably too restrictive a limit for a sector that has up to now been allowed to drive for 56 hours a week on top of other work, but if it is to be applied to the road transport industry at all, it should surely, in the interests of fairness, apply to all of it.
• It has taken nearly three months to show it can be done, but the first appeal against fines for carrying illegal immigrants has finally been won. Good news for Essex-based Cullum & Son and its driver Colin Locke, who would otherwise have faced a Do,000 fine; good news, too, for all international operators, as the hitherto impossible has been shown to be possible after all.
CM advises all those engaged in international operations to follow Cullum's example so they too can show they've made every possible check in the event of stowaways being discovered in their vehicles. At long last, the formula for avoiding these unfair penalties has been discovered—let's put it to good use.