Vote on truck driving limits hits roadblock

Date: 28/06/01

By Laurence Frost

GOVERNMENTS have delivered a major setback to plans to enforce legal limits on truckers' driving times, by putting pressure on the European Commission to cancel a key vote on fitting vehicles with 'black boxes'.

Road safety campaigners and trade unions are criticising the move, saying the introduction of digital tachographs - which record the journey times of lorries - would reduce road deaths and improve drivers' working conditions.

But a group of countries led by the UK and Sweden are blocking the introduction of the new technology, three years after ministers passed the regulation to require it.

The Netherlands, Germany, Ireland and Denmark are also supporting the view that there are serious technical problems with the project and that it should go back to the drawing board for a revision of the 1998 regulation.

The UK and Ireland's refusal to vote at a meeting of government experts last Friday (22 June), and Germany's failure even to turn up, comes after a working group of police and transport agencies warned the new technology could make it harder to enforce the rules.

But road safety campaigners have doubts about the reasons given for the move. "Just having the extra data from digital tachographs would help with enforcement," said Jeanne Breen, executive director of the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC).

It is illegal for truckers to drive for more than 90 hours in any two-week period. But the €250 billion industry admits the rules are widely ignored. "Both company checks and roadside checks reveal that one out of every five lorries doesn't comply," said Wim Smolders of the

International Road Transport Union (IRU). An ETSC study to be published in the coming weeks will shed more light on the number of deaths caused by tired truckers. The research will reveal that 50% of professional drivers have fallen asleep at the wheel at least once.

Although no further findings have yet been released, it is understood they will echo a study by the US National Transportation Safety Board, which found that driver fatigue was a factor in 30% of fatal accidents involving lorries. "The legislation so far has not taken account of road accident research findings on driving fatigue," said Breen. "We want to see a complete review of driving time and working time limits."

Doubts about the delay are shared by the drivers' unions, whose own figures show that around 2,000 truckers are killed in accidents in the EU every year. "It's a pity these things are coming up now, after so many years of discussion," said Sabine Trier of the European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF).

The Commission has refused to revise the original legislation to address the technical concerns, and could be heading for a showdown with the blocking governments if it tries to force the technical vote through. "Once you put these things into vehicles it will be 10-15 years before there's a chance to improve them," said one EU diplomat. "It's worth waiting a year or two now and getting the thing right."

Governments have delivered a major setback to plans to enforce legal limits on truckers' driving times, by putting pressure on the European Commission to cancel a key vote on fitting vehicles with 'black boxes'.