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The subjects of tachographs and owner-drivers are the talking point of the day and seem to have been with us for years now. On the subject of the tachograph, enough said. We do not need them and do not intend to honour any law issued from Brussels or London.
On the subject of owner-drivers, I believe these are the people who have the real problems. They need to belong to a road transport union, and that is the United Road Transport Union. Through membership of this union they can be assisted in many ways.
They also have a need to belong to an owner-drivers' association — not the Road Haulage Association or Freight Transport Association who, let's face it, do not believe that the owner-driver should exist.
But how do we make the people in Brussels and London realise that we are not prepared to be continually legislated against by anyone, particularly the railway enthusiasts in the chambers of power in Brussels?
The biggest hurdle which we must overcome is the employers of mainland Europe who have not been objecting to all this road haulage legislation. They have adopted the philosophy that road legislation is a utopia to be aimed at eventually, but not obeyed for the present. Because the laws are not enforced, they have tended to ignore the problem and never complain about it.
The United Road Transport Union has, even before we actually joined Europe, been voicing its opinion and continues to argue strongly against almost all the EEC anti-road legislation and against all that is still to come.
We need to get the RHA and FTA off their backsides and impress on the hauliers of Europe that if enforcement was the same on the mainland as it is in Great Britain, then they would be out of business and the railways will have achieved what they have been aiming for.
A united European employers' front must be formed to present itself to the powers-that-be in Brussels to call a halt and insist on a reappraisal of what has gone before — eight-hour day and all. Laws were made to be amended. If that were not the case, we would still have the death penalty.
So change these stupid laws now.
The owner-drivers need to press also for these and other changes, both through an owner-drivers' association, which I have already said is essential, and through their union membership, which is also essential.
We in the United Road Transport Union will continue to fight to try and bring some sanity back to road haulage legislation. No-one can put all the road law into one book — so how can an employer, self-employed or otherwise, let alone the professional behind the wheel, know what is what?
JACKSON MOORE, General Secretary, United Road Transport Union.