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FTA wants more time
Page 10
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• The Freight Transport Association is upping the ante in Brussels as it desperately tries to avert a compromise over the Working Time Directive that could see nighttime working restricted to fewer than 10 hours a shift.
Last week ETA chief executive Richard Turner travelled to Brussels to meet senior European Commission officials to explain the impact such a move would have in the UK.
Central to Turner's concerns is the row that has developed between the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers. MEPs want to restrict the number of hours drivers can work at night to eight—and they want to bring self-employed drivers under the directive's remit. The Council wants a night working maximum of 10 hours and with an exclusion for selfemployed drivers.
"I have heard compromises of nine hours berg talked about and that would be a disaster," says Turner. "We are now drawing up a hit list of people to lobby—to explain the impact such a move would have—and we will be targeting those key people over the next few weeks."
The ETA already estimates that the EU Working Time Directive threatens to cost the UK transport industry £3.3bn a year.
Formal "conciliation" between MEPs and the Council of Ministers will take place over the next two months.