Paul Arthurton Owner Paul Arthurton Transport Norfolk Five years on,
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the working time regulations still take up valuable time, says Arthurton. He has recently had to renegotiate with drivers to change the calculation period from 17 weeks to 26, something which can only be done with the collective agreement of the workforce.
This, he hopes, will give him more scope to average out working hours so that they comply with the regulations.
It provides more opportunity to balance out the peaks and troughs. Like others, Arthurton admits that the flexibility provided by POAs is absolutely crucial in being able to meet the restrictions.
"We have to use them all the time because if not, frankly we would be up the creek by Wednesday every week.
"I've said all along there's no point just telling hauliers about how POAs work. Someone needs to also explain it to the likes of Tesco and Sainsbury's, 'They appear to have no understanding of what it means for drivers when they keep them waiting for two to three hours without telling them when they will be unloaded."
Waiting at a distribution depot counts as a POA if the driver knows the length of the delay in advance, but if a normal one-hour delay turns into a two-hour delay, the second hour should count as working time because he was not notified of the extra delay in advance.
With hindsight, Arthurton fails to see what the Working Time Directive has achieved that existing drivers' hours regulations did not.
"I just don't understand why we need them both," he says.