• Home
• Used vehicles
• Product news
• Dealer news
• Compliance
• Buying advice
• Archive

123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116117118119120121122123124125126127128129130131132133134135136137138139140141142143144145146147148149150151152153154155156157158159160161162163164165166167168169170171172173174175176177178179180181182183184185186187188189190191192193194195196197198199200201202203204205206207208209210211212

FTA Conference in Edinburgh

Zoom page

2nd May 1969

Page 46

Page 47

Page 46, 2nd May 1969 — FTA Conference in Edinburgh

Close

Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Please select an option... Headline has errors Article text has errors Article is incomplete Submit

' Dropping tachographs will lead to nonsenses'

• From questions put by some of the 260 delegates who attended in Edinburgh last Friday the first Scottish conference of the Freight Transport Association (the third this year in the series run by the Association on the Transport Act) it was clear that there are still many answers to be supplied.

Mr. D. C. Renshaw, principal, road transport (goods division) Ministry of Transport, reiterated what Mr. J. Lane had said in London and Manchester (CM March 7 and 281. As a result of the pilot scheme the application forms for operators' licences were to be considerably simplified.

During the discussion Mr. F. M. Fieldhouse (British Ropes Ltd.) pointed out that as vehicles could not be on two licences at once, untaxed vehicles would be needed for temporary substitutions. Mr. Renshaw felt that LAs would not be unnecessarily obstructive.

As Scotland was all one traffic area, only one operator's licence would be required regardless of the number of depots therein, the vehicles' base being the deciding factor. Scotland would have its own application form, said Mr. W. N. McCoubrey, senior area mechanical engineer, he agreed that his staff had been in error in insisting on inspecting an operator's FTA maintenance contract. The Ministry was working on a guide for required maintenance standards but if vehicles were in a satisfactory condition now, then facilities would almost certainly be considered adequate, he said.

Mr. W. T. Fairbairn (distribution manager, Scottish and Newcastle Breweries Ltd.) spoke on drivers' hours, productivity and tachographs.

Careful planning and method changes had enabled his company to make a slight increase in output from a slightly reduced fleet, said Mr. Fairbairn. A recently agreed consolidated wage scheme for delivery drivers, giving them a maximum 10-hour day, had forced the company to think hard about their loading arrangements in order to recover the hour reduction in the drivers' day. The increased output achieved was some 3 per cent.

Trunk traffic, said Mr. Fairbairn, was done completely by articulated vehicles, enabling programmed loading in advance of running. When the supply requirements for branches were known, a daily loading programme was compiled and trailers were fed into the loading area to give continuous loading, almost all by fork-lift trucks. Similarly, at the company's depots, trailers were loaded with empties to allow changeover of trailers in a few minutes.

In his summary of the main features of the drivers' hours provisions in the Transport Act, Mr. Fairbairn stressed that though a driver must have a period of 24 hours off duty in each week it did not have to be one day in seven—the requirements of the Act would be met by starting one working week with a Sunday rest day and ending the succeeding working week with a rest day on a Saturday, i.e. 12 days on duty with a day's rest at each end. This might help where occasional weekend work was necessary.

The concession made to part-time workers, defined as those who on no day during the working week drive goods vehicles (or p.s.v. or passenger vehicles designed to carry more than 12 passengers) for more than four hours per day. would be valuable to retailers, service engineers and various other types of business where the driver was consistently part-time over the whole of the week. It followed that if there was any chance of exceeding the daily maximum of four hours' driving, he must observe the hours" rules for the entire week.

On flexibility, Mr. Fairbairn said that although the Act gave power to the Minister to create exemptions or modify the requirements "in cases of emergency or otherwise to meet a special need" and /or to permit the Licensing Authorities to exercise similar flexibility, there was as yet no firm indication as to the way these powers would be used. He hoped that account would be taken of the special circumstances of some aspects of milk distribution, the newspaper industry, seasonal trades, etc. Discussing tachographs, the speaker said the original plan called for instruments to be fitted to all vehicles over 30cwt unladen recording travelling time, stops and rest time, speed and distance. "The hostility of drivers to tachographs has been amply demonstrated, but whether a tachograph recording only travelling time and rests would be any more acceptable is open to question.'" The employers generally felt that if tachographs were to be enjoined, the fullest information should be provided. Used sensibly, tachographs would be helpful in establishing productivity schemes and confirming delays.

Mr. Fairbairn said that increased speed had been the most common and fruitful field for productivity bargaining, but its application had been confined mainly to long-distance trunking or limited drop delivery work. This left a fairly large section of mediumand shortrange delivery work on which increased speed would have only a limited effect. However, in this type of operation of moderate mileage and frequent drops, as much time could be wasted as with restricted speed on higher mileages. In this field the employer would almost certainly have to bargain for better performance by drivers on their combined speed and delivery work.

Describing a consolidated wage scheme applied in his company. Mr. Fairbairn said that the consolidated payment was fixed at 46 hours —40 hours basic plus six hours overtime, with a bonus payment for work done at agreed standards. A driver could therefore be sure of his normal earnings and could, by greater effort, increase his earnings by bonus.

During the discussion time Mr. Renshaw said men driving on-site unlicensed vehicles for the maximum number of permitted hours would not be allowed to drive a bus back from the site afterwards. However, it did raise the point of whether a driver going home was off-duty and whether he could drive during that off-duty period. Regarding the less than-four-hours-per-day exemption, if it was exceeded on one day, the whole of that week would be subject to the regulations.

Mr. W. G. Spence (House of Fraser Ltd.) made a plea that own-account transport under the new licensing system should be eligible for SET refunds as were hauliers now.

Mr. Renshaw said special consideration was being given to the Highlands and Islands during regulation drafting. Equally, as a rest day would be required every seven, the question of daily five-hour delivery periods for rouncfsmen was being reviewed.

After a comment that small operators could not afford to instigate work studies necessary to evolve productivity schemes, the conference was told that the FTA was setting up an advisory service to provide information on schemes and consultants.

Following his paper on transport managers' licences, Mr. II H. F. Joyce (Shell-Max and BP Ltd.) said if a depot was controlled only by salesmen, then the senior driver should be brought on to hold the licence, since he should be sufficiently intelligent, having passed an h,g.v. driver's test.

Mr. S. F. Gregory (Beatties Bakeries Ltd.) pointed out that products were sold under franchise by men who were self-employed but used vehicles owned and taxed by the parent company. Mr. Renshaw said under the Act the driver was the user and would have to hold an operator's and a transport manager's licence. Mr. H. R. Featherstone, ETA director, did not agree and hoped common sense would be applied by LAs.

Disqualification would be permanent but the period over which revocation would extend had not been defined, said Mr. Renshaw.

Mr. Joyce said more than one standard for the licence, with the minimum meeting the Act's road safety requirements, was being considered. A sensible employer would require higher educational standards than the basic efficiency certificate. The licence was not a professional qualification but a permit to operate.

Mr. Featherstone, in his address, called for at least one year's notice before the implementation of reduced hours and said that, when they were introduced, new records would be required for a system for which they had not been designed—the tachograph obviously being a non-starter—which would lead to non senses and compromises.