Unwrapping parcel rules
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• The latest Department of Transport interpretation of the soon-to-be-introduced driving hours law for parcels carriers has been criticised by the Road Haulage Association as "messy and inconclusive".
From September 29, the Post Office and all other private sector parcels carriers will be exempt from the new EEC drivers hour regulations. Instead all those in the public and private sector carrying "postal articles" will be subject to the simplified domestic rules of a daily 10-hour maximum driving limit with an 11hour maximum duty limit.
The RHA has been campaigning strongly against the decision to treat parcels carriers differently from other operators, and in particular it has been concerned over what actually constitutes a "postal article" — a term as yet undefined by the DTp.
It has also been pressing for Junior Transport Minister Peter Bottomley to place the Post Office and other parcels carriers under new domestic legislation which matches the latest EEC rules, including a nine-hour driving Limit.
In a new letter to the RHA, Bottomley says that it would be contrary to EEC law for a member state to introduce domestic legislation to control vehicles which are specifically exempted from an EEC regulation, as is currently the case with the Post Office.
Bottomley has restated that the 10-hour driving limit will apply to any vehicle carrying "postal articles," including those of private operators of parcel services.
He acknowledges however, that only the courts can say exactly which operation will or will not be covered.
The RHA says the latest interpretation is "not in the hest interests of the whole industry and will be bound to lead to difficulty and confusion when the regulation is enforced."
RHA senior executive Bob Duffy claims that parcels operators have been left none the wiser by Bottomley's letter, "We have now got a definitive response and have to come back to the point that we still don't know what a parcel is", he said.
According to Duffy "It is a matter for the courts to decide, we can't give much more guidance than that. He believes that if a private parcels carrier has a similar operation to the Post Office then they should qualify, but that operators carrying large items could face problems.