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8th February 2001
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As it stands, the Working Time Directive will take effect for drivers in Britain in 2004. From that date they are likely to be limited to a 48-hour average working week. Nothing is concrete yet, but it looks like owner-drivers will initially be exempt from this limit. Tim Maughan wades through the complicated legislative process that, one way or another, will lead to drastic changes for UK hauliers...

ritish operators will have to change the way they conduct business in the next two to three years when the long-awaited Working Time Directive is finally extended to the haulage industry.

European Union legislation is likely to restrict drivers to work

ing an average 48-hour week—

and, crucially, these hours repre sent total working time rather than specific driving time, as is c currently the case.

Owner-drivers are likely to be

t-2m exempt, at least for a time, but all

.8> employees, from clerks to fitters, will be limited to a 48-hour average working week under the main Working Time Directive, E which is scheduled to take effect by i August zoo; at the latest. And the haulage industry will get no derogation.

Restructuring is inevitable. Hauliers will be under pressure to pay existing staff a higher hourly rate, and they will need to employ more staff to cater for the limit on their existing workforce. Conversely, if rates fail to increase, hauliers could be forced to reduce their workloads.

Disappointment

The news that UK hauliers will not be able to opt out of the regulations was met with disappointment by the Freight Transport Association. Executive vice-president David Green says: "FTA surveys have shown that this directive will cost industry many millions of pounds and result in a large increase in the number of goods vehicles on the road. We will be looking for recognition of these realities when the directive comes to be implemented in the UK.'' This being European Union legislation, implementation will be slow, and liable to change. Bureaucracy is the order of the day. The European Council of Transport Ministers has agreed on the terms of the Working Time Directive—as it stands, drivers will be restricted to a Gohour maximum working week, rather than the current 78. The maximum average working week will be 48 hours, taken over a period of I? weeks.

Requirement

Additionally, there will be minimum breaks of 30 minutes after six hours' work and 45 minutes if a shift exceeds nine hours. Importantly, the existing requirement to take a 45-minute break after 4', hours' driving will remain in place, and will run alongside the new Working Time Directive regulations.

Owen Thomas, head of road freight policy at the FTA, says of the Working Time Directive: "For a company that routinely schedules less than 48 hours, it will not be a problem. But for those that work longer hours there will be many companies where theGohour cap causes problems."

Owner-drivers, described by Thomas as the "one-man bands" will, at least for a time, be exempt from the Working Time Directive. But at the other end of the logistics chain, the big players might have to reconsider where they locate their depots. Thomas warns: "If companies set up distribution centres based on present drivers' hours, then all of a sudden the maximum working time is decreased and night working time is limited, distribution centres could be in the wrong place." Night work will be limited to a maximum of ro hours by the directive.

Thomas adds: "The transport industry is rightly renowned for its flexibility, but the Working Time Directive is going to mean big changes."

Those changes are on their way, but Thomas says: "We cannot take all this as being on tablets of stone...the European Parliament will get their hands on the authenticated version then give it some consideration. We will know by the end of June, if not earlier, what the European Parliament thinks of this. But I will be surprised if

n they just nod it through." The European Parliament can put forward proposals for change, and in that case it will go through a conciliation process with the Council of Transport Ministers. (see panel, right).

As it stands, the final version of the Working Time Directive is due to be enshrined in UK law in 2004. Yet the schedule itself is open to change—the European Parliament and Council of Transport Ministers could decide to introduce legislation earlier,

perhaps in 2003. Hauliers, with the exception of owner-drivers, will be bound by its regulations. The directive could alter again by 2007, but—judging by the directive already agreed by the Council of Transport Ministers—at the moment owner-drivers can be pretty sure they will be exempt, at least until 2007. In theory, however, the European Parliament could suggest alterations to this if it saw fit. In that event a conciliation process between the two parties would swing into operation.


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