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Drivers' hours: the breaks
Page 28
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THE HOURS of work laws are unnecessarily complicated and the sooner they are simplified the better for all concerned. Your reply to a reader's inquiry (CM September 18) and the correction to that reply the following week (CM September 23) are both not quite correct, which just goes to show how difficult these laws are to Interpretate. Pity the poor driver who has to try and understand them, so as to keep within the law.
When considering the National Rules there are two heavy goods vehicle categories. Category 1 covers all rigid goods vehicles and artic and drawbar combinations under 20 tonnes gross plated weight. Category 2, the one with which a reader's query is concerned, deals with artics and drawbar trailers over 20 tonnes gross plated weight.
The law concerning the break period to be taken by the drivers of Category 2 vehicles is contained in EEC Regulations 543/69. In substance the regulation states: "Driving shall be interrupted for a period of not less than one hour at the end of the first four-hour driving period of continuous driving. This break may be replaced by two breaks of not less than half an hour each, spaced out over the daily driving period in such a way that no period of four hours continuous driving is exceeded."
The EEC rules do not deal with the time a driver spends on duty as opposed to that spent driving, so the rest period after a spell of duty is governed by the 1968 Transport Act which requires a half an hour's rest after 51/2 hours duty.
LES OLDRIDGE CM correspondent Exeter