{"id":5031,"date":"2015-07-31T11:46:22","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T10:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=5031"},"modified":"2015-07-31T11:46:22","modified_gmt":"2015-07-31T10:46:22","slug":"a-dangerous-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=5031","title":{"rendered":"A dangerous move"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ministerial plans to relax the laws around driver hours in an effort to ease congestion caused by Operation Stack<\/a>, as transport movement between the Channel ports seizes up, is not the answer, Unite warned yesterday (July 30).<\/p>\n

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The department of transport has announced that it will temporarily suspend the rules around how long lorry drivers can work and for how long they can rest, a move, it claims, will make it easier for businesses to address backlogs brought about by the disruption.<\/p>\n

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However, Unite says that these moves will increase the chance of road accidents and will not address the problems the industry and drivers encounter on a routine basis with the Channel ports, which is why it is appealing to the government and the industry to work with the union on longer-term, viable solutions.<\/p>\n

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Unite is also calling upon the government to instead step up its efforts to reach a solution with the French government on improving security, and is also appealing to employers to delay sending any further trucks to the affected ports until the Channel routes are clear.<\/p>\n

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It is also urging haulage companies to use the alternative routes in the meantime.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bRoad haulage is already an extremely demanding and stressful job,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite national officer for road transport Adrian Jones.<\/p>\n

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Pressures<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bDrivers need to have their wits about them at all times. Recent events have shone a media spotlight on the sort of pressures drivers encounter daily. They are under are immense pressure and not just on the road.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat ministers need to understand is that when drivers are stuck in delays for hours on end they are then required to continue their journeys when they reach either French or English soil, no matter how long they have already been at the wheel,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe only safeguard that they have against exhaustion is the working time regulations which demand that they take adequate rests before getting onto the road.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bRelaxing these rules is a dangerous move. There are very good reasons for these regulations, which are about driver and public safety. This is dreadful situation for all those at the centre of it, but reducing protections for people at work only makes matters worse.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jones urged the government to \u00e2\u20ac\u015bnot compromise on road safety\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe would happily sit down with ministers and employers to work out a more sensible way to address the concerns before us as an industry.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe urge the government to step up its efforts to work with the French government on improved security at the Channel ports, and we call upon employers to work on an alternative plan,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Jones said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bDo not send drivers out on the road exhausted and stressed, but instead ease the bottleneck at the ports by delaying the departure of more trucks and using alternative crossings until the port routes are clear.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ministerial plans to relax the laws around driver hours in an effort to ease congestion caused by Operation Stack, as transport movement between the Channel ports seizes up, is not the answer, Unite warned yesterday (July 30).   The department of transport has announced that it will temporarily suspend the rules around how long lorry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5033,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"wps_subtitle":"Unite urges rethink on relaxing driver safety laws","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5031"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5032,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5031\/revisions\/5032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}