Transport firms face more changes to working practice

7 April 2006:

With the imminent replacement of the 21 year old drivers' hours regulations, the UK road haulage industry is facing another major change in its working practices. According to the Road Haulage Association(RHA), [http://www.rha.org.uk] although the bulk of the changes will not take effect for over a year there are several amendments that will take effect twenty days after the EU official text of the legislation is published in the Official Journal, which is now expected in a matter of weeks. Among the amendments, which mainly relate to the implementation of the digital tachograph, is one that is guaranteed to lead to confusion and argument between operators and the inspecting officers of VOSA (Vehicle and Operator Services Agency), [http://www.vosa.gov.uk] the RHA says. That is the existing requirement for drivers to be able to produce records covering all of the current week and the last record of the previous week.

As of May, drivers of vehicles fitted with analogue tachographs will be required to produce, whenever an inspecting officer so requests, the record sheets for the current week and those used by the driver in the previous 15 days. This may result in some drivers being unable to fulfil the current requirement to return driver record sheets to operators/employers within 21 days.