Ridley called in on self-employed
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TRANSPORT Secretary Nicholas Ridley has been called in by the Transport Tribunal to advise whether an owner can exercise control over self-employed drivers working for him.
Judge John Inskip, president of the Tribunal, announced the decision that Mr Ridley would be called in to clear up the law in this area, after an appeal from Gordon Wright Transport of Norwich last week.
Gordon Wright, the company's managing director, was appealing against the decision of Eastern Licensing Authority Ken Peter last June to revoke his operator's licence when he learned that Mr Wright had self-employed fitters and drivers working for him. He said that an owner could not exercise proper control over selfemployed labour.
Defending Mr Wright at the Tribunal, Richard Robinson alleged that the LA had "misdirected himself in law" in finding it was not possible for an owner to exercise control over self-employed drivers.
Mr Robinson said that the LA had allowed this to "influence his mind". He also said the LA had failed to consider properly the degree of control exercised by Gordon Wright over his drivers, even though there had been convictions over maintenance problems.
Mr Wright's defence said that he had only been expected to be questioned on maintenance issues and that there had been no prior warning for the need to defend himself on the selfemployed issue.
The fact that he used self-employed drivers and fitters only came out by accident when the man responsible for maintenance was brought up and it was found that he was self-employed.
Mr Robinson added that whether or not a self-employed scheme was legal, the LA should at least have adjourned the hearing so that the "legal minefield" surrounding the issue could be investigated.
This latest controversy about owners using self-employed drivers comes less than seven months after the first test case when the managing director of Lancashire-based Kammac Trucking, Brian Kamel, who ran a self-employed drivers' scheme, was subject of an appeal by the Road Haulage Association. It filed the objection to Mr Kamel's scheme.
But the Tribunal found then that Mr Kernel was in control of drivers' hours and overloading. However, Judge lnskip stressed that this was because his drivers were involved largely on local runs with light cargo.