Change the rules so we can compete
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WE MUST accept that cheap foreign haulage helps British industry compete in the global economy, so let's stop bleating about it.
Instead, we should be looking at what they are doing and force legislation through Westminster and Brussels to enable British hauliers to compete legally.
We should abandon the 48-hour week and bring in domestic rules that help British haulage contractors. Weekend lorry bans (as in France) would stop the seven-day week culture of foreign operators (at least while they operate within the UK).
It would also promote more family-oriented work patterns to promote the attractiveness of a driving job as a career. The dreaded fouron/four-off shift patterns have shattered drivers' domestic lives where they often work three weekends out of four.
Granted, it has helped the big supermarket and retail chains become more profitable, but at what cost to the home lives of the drivers that have formed the backbone of this formerly successful industrial nation?
I have been a driver for 30 years, and have run my own haulage business for 25 years. I have always tried to provide drivers with a job and a wage that gave them a decent home life and enough money for a holiday.
This sounds simplistic, but it has always worked for me and my drivers. In a low-paid industry such as road haulage, the ability to work more hours has meant the industry has always attracted the type of people who are prepared to put the hours in to be able to earn a better-than-average living wage. In the past, this has been invaluable in providing competitive haulage rates, but the advent of the 48-hour working week has led to the ingress of foreign hauliers who, in many cases, are operating outside the law, to provide this service to British industry The truth is that the government is not going to stop foreign hauliers from operating in this country when they offer the cheap rates that British industry needs, and the British haulier provided in the past.
Maximising opportunities
Working time directives from the EU have removed the basic human rights of staff to have the choice of being able to work extra hours in order to provide for their family in the manner to which they see fit, and for employers to remain competitive. We are losing far too many opportunities in the world market.
Let's kick out the utopian dream and start promoting productive rules such as: • A 60-hour working week.
• Implement a weekend driving ban from midnight Saturday to midnight Sunday, which would promote more family-friendly shift patterns and would help alleviate the problem of foreign trucks working seven days a week while in the UK.
• Allow longer vehicles on specific routes and increase the UK domestic weight limit up to 50 tonnes on six axles, and also to allow fiveaxle 40-tonne rigid vehicles.
• Supply blue diesel at 20p below the normal price of diesel for all hauliers. • Stop local councils setting up truck bans just to suit privileged residents who don't like the look of HGVs.
All these proposals would help the industry to reduce its carbon footprint and help in the effort to protect the environment and, most importantly. survive.
I know these ideas will not meet with the approval of all, but, if there is anybody out there willing to listen to those who spend everyday in this environment and contribute to the UK every day, perhaps we could form our policies from the bottom up — with people everywhere being given a voice and a choice. Liam Guinn
Ouinns Transport Via email.