Government relaxing HGV hours

[Bulletguy]

This is not good at all. :-|

 

Due to obvious panic at getting goods through the ports, government have today introduced an "urgent temporary relaxation of enforcement of the EU drivers’ hours rules". it applies to tachoe'd HGV's.

 

It is permitted for a driver using this relaxation to drive outside Great Britain during the period of this relaxation.

 

Brilliant.....so when you see a 40 tonner barreling long with the driver nodding at the wheel.....you know why and whose 'brilliant' idea it was. *-)

 

https://tinyurl.com/y4odnpkb

 

And this Irish trucker whose driven over a million miles in Europe, is very angry.

 

[John52]

Inevitable when they are in a traffic jam for days. Even if they have beds in their cabs how can they sleep when they have got to keep moving along. They when they finally get moving they have a lot of catching up to do, are under pressure to do it, and don't have the protection of the law to refuse to drive when tired and frustrated >:-)

Who is to blame when they fall asleep at the wheel ...

[John52]

I wonder if BoJo has worked this out *-)

Does he realise the EU are not going to allow tired drivers on their roads?

So what are British drivers supposed to do when they finally get across the channel and have to show their records from the last 14 days (?)

[Bulletguy]

John52 - 2020-12-10 10:25 PM

 

I wonder if BoJo has worked this out *-)

Does he realise the EU are not going to allow tired drivers on their roads?

So what are British drivers supposed to do when they finally get across the channel and have to show their records from the last 14 days (?)

 

There aren't that many UK truckers working continental John, the majority are Europe based drivers delivering imported goods and returning with export loads. But no truck driver wants to be sat stuck for hours on end in a queue as they're not earning when their truck is stood still so a large amount of delivery slots (I think it was 65%) for the first week of January, remain driverless where normally companies would have all fully booked. Drivers can easily work routes throughout Europe without the hassle of third country UK.

 

So UK gov finally woke up and realised they're in a big mess which is growing daily. We are a tiny little island which relies heavily on daily imports though the docks, some perishable items, some not but whatever they're bringing we need so government have come up with the idea of an "urgent relaxation of enforcement of EU drivers’ hours rules".

 

They said, "This is as a consequence of urgent and exceptional issues related to certain road transport operations, including in the context of port congestion, unusual demand patterns and the effects of coronavirus (COVID-19)-related restrictions on supply chains and demand on them." They've shoehorned Covid in as an excuse, It's the current default blame button pressed by Brexiteers when they can't blame the EU. So how it should read is, "This is as a consequence of urgent and exceptional issues related to certain road transport operations, including in the context of port congestion, unusual demand patterns and the restrictions on supply chains and demand on them." Which, in short means, the clusterfcuk of Brexit will throw all our ports into chaos and drivers don't want to deliver to us if they've got to queue, so we've loosened up the driving hours rules to attract drivers to come here.