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Of making many books there is no end by janus
N ALMOST any other occupation than that of a lorry driver a working week of 108 hours—alleged in the recent prosecution of the firm of Charles Poulter—might win praise as dedication of a high order. Tributes have not been forthcoming. Most people believe with the legislators that the man at the wheel should not be there too long.
The decision in the case could hardly have been timed better for the simultaneous introduction of reduced driving hours and drivers' record books on March 1. Fines and costs came to £82,000. It may seem urgent that steps should be taken to ensure the reduction if not the elimination of the opportunity to commit offences attracting penalties of this magnitude.
Nevertheless, perhaps the Ministry of Transport is not going the right way about achieving this desirable aim. So many other things are happening that the hours and records story is not getting a fair hearing. It is hard to believe that its introductory chapter is supposed to end within a month.
So well-established is the conviction that drivers' hours ought to be restricted that the Ministry has had no need to fear lack of public support for Part VI of the Transport Act 1968 and the consequential regulations. Not only is this support for a reduction in the number of hours but also for a far more elaborate system of keeping records.
The penalties have also gone up. The maximum fine for failing to keep records or causing them to be kept was £20 under the Road Traffic Act 1960 and is £200 under the 1968 Act.. The tenfold increase may partly explain the anxiety of operators that in spite of their efforts they may find themselves without the correct system of records at the beginning of March.
ANOTHER reason for much heavier fines may be the feeling within the Ministry that people will be persuaded to install such an appalling system only under the threat of an equally appalling penalty. The nearer the time comes the less operators relish the task facing them. They cannot have expected that the relatively simple clauses in the Act would be spun out into such complicated regulations.
Even the Ministry may be thinking along the same lines. The regulations have still not been published with official sanction and while they remain in this unhatched state the Ministry is having to admit that some of the points—in the Act rather than the regulations—may raise problems that only the courts can decide.
Books and registers are specified in the Act. The full significance was not recognized until a later stage. Operators may have thought the books were intended merely to protect the records and that loose-leaf covers would be adequate. The Ministry interpretation is that the books must be firmly bound and this requirement is being met in the Stationery Office books and in 'those supplied by the Freight Transport Association and the Road Haulage Association. Another unwelcome revelation was that the Ministry would require the forms to be kept in duplicate. The only way in which this provision can be met is by the use of a sheet of carbon paper. Experience will show whether the average driver manages to keep his precious sheet of carbon paper for longer than one day or even for as long. It would be asking far too much to expect him to keep it for three months if weekly sheets are used.
WHAT is the purpose of these new requirements? Presumably the Ministry, with the unique body of knowledge provided by enforcement officers and other officials, was aiming to close down the routes to evasion. These have often depended upon the existence of two sets of records and this would be more difficult to arrange if the sheets were duplicates and in a book.
A further precaution was to have the sheets numbered. Once this had been decided the Ministry went further. The books themselves should be numbered and also the registers. It is not clear how all this helps unless it keeps the operator and driver so busy that they have no time to fiddle.
If it is possible to have two log sheets to cover the same activity it seems equally possible to have two record books provided they each carry the same number. It should be sufficient in any case to show the book number on the cover and not on every sheet as well as the sheet number. As the pages are retained in the book it may be desirable to number them but, hardly seems worth while making compulsory.
The form itself is no more complicated than the current log sheet and possibly less so. Its contents are determined largely by the new requirements for hours of driving, hours of rest and so on. The main problem is the now notorious disposition of breaks to indicate which of them are on and off duty.
Some consideration might have been given to a further simplification. Operators who lag behind standards in general are being forced to make proper arrangements for the maintenance of vehicles, the observance of drivers' hours and the general operation of their business. The penalties for failing to conform are much higher than before.
The official objectors now include half a dozen trade unions. They ought to be able to fill in whatever gaps there may be in the information held by a Licensing Authority. They will be quick to draw attention to the misdeeds of an operator. The drivers themselves unless they are restricted to vans must hold a special driving licence. On average they are well paid by industrial standards although they work considerably longer hours than most people.
PPORTUNITIES as Well as the inclination are less than before for evading the provisions on drivers' hours. Some way might have been found for reducing the information on the log sheet to the bare minimum required to ensure that the driver was not flagrantly breaking the law.
Keeping much simplified records in books might have helped. Another useful aid would have been provided by the. tachograph which has now become the important subject that nobody mentions. What is more than likely, however, is that even compulsory recorders would not have affected the contents of the record books regulations.
Whatever the manufacturers may think there is now little possibility that section 97 of the Act, which would have made the tachograph compulsory, will at anytime be put into effect. The resistance of the unions is popularly supposed to' have prevented the Minister from acting. Clearly, the provision should have been brought into force at the same time as the new record system and the change in drivers' hours. The opportunity has passed.
WHAT the promoters of the tachograph are hoping is that there will be another chance if and when the Minister brings about a further reduction to nine driving hours in a day. By thattime the new records will have been established. If properly used they ought to be able to give operators most if not all of the information that the tachograph can provide about what a vehicle and its driver have been doing.
It can help on additional items such as the points where delays take place and where productivity agreements run into difficulties. In such cases it ought to be in the interest of the driver as well as the operator to have a mechanical recorder to supplement written and oral evidence.
The Act says that there should be tachographs as well as record books. The Minister has shown no interest in an appointed day for the first. He has rushed into the second in what now appears unseemly haste.