Move to limit independent drivers’ time at the wheel

Date: 25/03/1999

By Renée Cordes

EU GOVERNMENTS will consider next week whether proposed limits on transport workers' hours should apply to self-employed drivers.

German Transport Minister Franz Münterfering will raise the issue at a meeting with his EU counterparts next Monday (29 March), but no agreement on the planned new rules is expected before June.

Italy, Portugal and the UK, whose drivers travel longer distances to deliver goods across Europe, are set to oppose restrictions on self-employed drivers.

But they are likely to face strong opposition from Nordic and other member states which claim that broader working-time provisions are needed to keep weary drivers, who might pose a serious safety hazard, off the road.

" If you view it from a safety and competition perspective, then it does make sense to include self-employed drivers," said one diplomat. "But if you view it as a social measure aimed at improving conditions for the employed, then it does not make sense."

Acting Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn proposed extending existing EU limits on working hours to the transport sector last autumn after talks between industry and trade unions on a voluntary deal broke down.

If Flynn's proposals are accepted, truck drivers would not be allowed to work more than 60 hours per week.

Transport workers were exempted from the European Commission's original 1993 proposal to limit average working hours because employers and some governments insisted that extra flexibility was needed in the road haulage sector.

Lorry drivers have welcomed the move to extend the directive, but the industry claims it would eat away at slender profit margins in a sector which is already struggling.