News

The Department for Transport (DfT) has turned down requests from livestock hauliers for a temporary relaxation of the drivers' hours rules in order to clear the backlog of animals stuck on farms after the foot-and-mouth crisis. Restrictions on livestock movement were fully lifted at the beginning of this week (10 September), but hauliers say they need extra driving time in order to clear the backlog.

The Road  Haulage Association (RHA) was among those to put in requests for the temporary relaxation of the rules, when it asked for a permitted driving limit of 56 hours per week rather than the usual 90 hours per fortnight. The RHA says that if the relaxation of the restrictions lasted for a month it should help the situation return to normal.

Phil Flanders, the RHA's regional director in Scotland, says: "[The government] did it in 2001, so there is a precedent for it, but this time they just said no. It seems pretty short-sighted, especially as so many livestock hauliers have gone out of business in the last few years that there aren't the hauliers to do the work." John Stamper, director of Cumbria-based RI Stamper Haulage, adds that the issue of drivers' hours is even more difficult because livestock markets are being run on Sundays to catch up with lost time.

He says: "It's a good idea, but many of us won't be  able to work on Sundays because our drivers will have used up all their hours." But the DfT remains adamant. A spokesman says: "Drivers' hours rules help protect LGV drivers and other road users from the real dangers associated with driver fatigue. They are a key part of road safety legislation and decisions to relax them are not taken lightly."

The Road Haulage Association is considering options for suing for damages on behalf of livestock hauliers, following the HSE report on the cause of the-foot and-mouth outbreak at Pirbright research centre. Roger Wrapson, secretary of the RHA's Livestock Carriers Group, says: "Livestock hauliers were instructed to stop moving animals when the outbreak was reported and then, when the blanket ban was lifted, faced onerous restrictions on the work they could do. These were sensible precautions for the government to take but nonetheless resulted in considerable loss of work and revenue.

"A stable and professional livestock transport industry plays a vital role in supporting British farmers and the meat supply chain, and is still recovering from the devastating impact of the outbreak of foot and mouth in 2001. It is essential that hauliers be compensated for the loss of work and difficulties they have suffered as a result of this outbreak, due to no fault of their own," he concludes.