I would be grateful for any comments on why HGV drivers believe the Road Transport Regulations (working time 2005 ) ) should be Scrapped.
Thanks
Sorry mate, but IMHO you’re trying to shut the stable door long after the horse left town.
The transport WTD Regs were introduced as a result of Council Directive 2002/15/EC, so even if our esteemed Govt were to take notice of you and scrap it, the effect would be to put the UK in beach of the Directive.
I don’t think that UK PLC can really afford the EU fine if we simply scrapped it, so it might be time to go back to the drawing board and come up with a less simplistic idea.
I take that as a dont scrap it.
Unfortunately/fortunately the UK plc dont adequately enforce the regs at the moment
So its a free for all.
However things change.
Thanks for your comments.
V1/4
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Ross v stobart:
I would be grateful for any comments on why HGV drivers believe the Road Transport Regulations (working time 2005 ) ) should be Scrapped.
Thanks
See my comment on your other thread, but diesel Dave is right, I don’t like it, but I can’t see it being scrapped. So the next best option is to hope that VOSA pretty much take a softly softly approach with enforcement.
I think it comes down to the type of job the drivers doing.
If a driver has long periods of waiting , like an hour or two then id agree that’s a P O A.
Whats happening is many drivers use rest and P O A whilst working or on standby.
If some drivers work like this they get lethargic and a few have daily accidents ranging from vehicle/structure on site damage and R T R accidents like rollovers and collisions.
With the best will in the world, I’m sorry but there is a link between working time and accidents.
I have chatted to loads of drivers who dont like the ammount of hours that they are expected to work but are afraid to challenge the gaffer.
I take it you would Scrap the regs but believe its not possible.
Cheers I’m grateful your view.
It’s pretty well known that there’s a softly softly approach with the WTD, so reading between the lines might suggest that it’s only with us as a result of the Directive. The way it’s enforced (or the lack of it) might be down to a question of available resources or maybe a simple lack of political will.
Now for one of my pet sayings… nobody should second guess what an enforcement officer may or may not do in a given situation, because that guess could backfire.
I think the only option with this is to use proper channels to get it amended, but I’m not sure how much room for change there is in the original Directive.
I honestly don’t think that any attempt to get it fully scrapped will amount to anything.
I’d really like to be wrong about this.
Ross v stobart:
I would be grateful for any comments on why HGV drivers believe the Road Transport Regulations (working time 2005 ) ) should be Scrapped.
Thanks
Quite simply because they’re stupid short sighted halfwits who seem to be of the belief that to earn a decent wage one has to do twice the hours the rest of the country does for the same money.
If any of them had a single brain cell amongst them they’d be campaigning for a tightening of the rules with 48hrs to mean duty time, not “what we can’t fiddle away using PoA and breaks”.
But no, it’ll never happen. Cue a load of posts consisting of “if we can’t work twice as many hours as everyone else we can’t earn £1000 below the national average wage”
Bang on the nail.
Or as they say in the planning office
BANG IT ON P O A
The reason it should be scrapped is to save all the ■■■■■■■■.
Its a waste of time.
Any driver who complies will be treated like a jobsworth.
no one is following the law.
drivers and operators do not comply
They just pretend they do.
just scrap it and admit the truth.
tell the EU that in the UK were different and dont need to comply.
drivers will be happy doing there 80 hours a week.
enjoy your ill health and count your money.
low pay
long hours
and fiddle like its going out of fashion
industry is bent.
fatigue causes accidents.
its a load of ■■■■■■■■ and VOSA do not enforce it anyway.
a complete waste of time.
lets just admit its a fiddle and be done with it.
or
comply and be prepared for less hours and a higher hourly pay.
Safer roads
less fatigue
happier drivers
thats it
good luck
If anyone wants an EU thing scrapped then the only way is to get the EU parliament to scrap it or, easier still, vote to get out of the EU so the UK can implement its own laws without EU intervention
If the UK votes to leave the EU then as lorry drivers we could have UK domestic laws only for drivers who only drive within the UK
Ross v stobart:
his usual nonsense about all drivers and companies running illegally
I thought we’d got rid of you 
Shut the door on your way out 
ROG:
If anyone wants an EU thing scrapped then the only way is to get the EU parliament to scrap it or, easier still, vote to get out of the EU so the UK can implement its own laws without EU interventionIf the UK votes to leave the EU then as lorry drivers we could have UK domestic laws only for drivers who only drive within the UK
Why do people think that getting out of Europe will change anything in the transport industry? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for getting out, but given that successive governments have done bugger all for drivers I just can’t see them falling over themselves to help us if/when we do get out.
BillyHunt:
ROG:
If anyone wants an EU thing scrapped then the only way is to get the EU parliament to scrap it or, easier still, vote to get out of the EU so the UK can implement its own laws without EU interventionIf the UK votes to leave the EU then as lorry drivers we could have UK domestic laws only for drivers who only drive within the UK
Why do people think that getting out of Europe will change anything in the transport industry? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for getting out, but given that successive governments have done bugger all for drivers I just can’t see them falling over themselves to help us if/when we do get out.
I have said before Scotland is a ticking time bomb with this independence vote coming up. If its a YES vote which i have a feeling it will be. Scotland will not be given automatic entry into the EU or entry at all (if spain get thier way). So what rules will we follow as a non EU,UK country ? A good chance for a blank canvas approach for a total revamp of the goods/ passenger transport industries.Rules to suit the industries not some pen pusher in Brussels.
But the scottish government will just bottle it and adopt the UE rules i recon
9
ND888 BIGJ:
So what rules will we follow as a non EU,UK country ?
Possibly AETR rules?
I can’t wait to get back to those 80+hr working weeks, the pills that keep you awake are sooo much better these days.
Even better . . . £6.31 X 80hrs means a whopping £500+ per week. And it’s all TAX FREE if you’re on an agency ZERO hrs contract (Terms & Conditions Apply
Mike-C:
ND888 BIGJ:
So what rules will we follow as a non EU,UK country ?Possibly AETR rules?
Why change something that works?
weeto:
Mike-C:
ND888 BIGJ:
So what rules will we follow as a non EU,UK country ?Possibly AETR rules?
Why change something that works?
I think thats exactly what the initiators of the AETR rules had in mind ! 
Ah, my ignorance.
But out of interest do places like Russia for domestic use, do they have there own rules different to EU/AETR?
ROG:
If anyone wants an EU thing scrapped then the only way is to get the EU parliament to scrap it or, easier still, vote to get out of the EU so the UK can implement its own laws without EU interventionIf the UK votes to leave the EU then as lorry drivers we could have UK domestic laws only for drivers who only drive within the UK
Common sense would suggest that’s exactly what the idea of ‘domestic’ regs ‘should’ mean anyway even within the framework of EU membership.The clue is in the word ‘domestic’ so it’s anyone’s guess how EU hours regs were allowed to be applied to domestic only operations.I think we can blame the raving LabLibDemCon federalist EU supporting UK politicians for that not just the Eurocrats. 
While in the case of international journeys if/when we ever get out of the EU the TIR agreement should apply and then be widened to include hours regs so that drivers keep the regs as they apply in the vehicle’s place of registration and/or driver’s place of employment.
As for the WTD there’s no point in having drivers hours regs if they are then going to be over ridden by other types of hours regs. 
Chas:
I can’t wait to get back to those 80+hr working weeks, the pills that keep you awake are sooo much better these days.Even better . . . £6.31 X 80hrs means a whopping £500+ per week. And it’s all TAX FREE if you’re on an agency ZERO hrs contract (Terms & Conditions Apply
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