Lords Committee raises safety concerns over further increase in drivers’ hours for HGVs

The House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee has published a report reiterating safety concerns over a statutory instrument which again relaxes the rules relating to heavy goods vehicles drivers’ hours.

The net effect of the Drivers’ Hours and Tachographs (Temporary Exceptions) (No. 2) Regulations 2021 (SI 2021/921) is to temporarily extend an increase in the fortnightly driving limit from 90 to 99 hours.

The Department of Transport (DfT) introduced a similar relaxation from 20 December 2020 to 31 March 2021. The current extension of hours was introduced administratively on 12 July and the current regulations extend this relaxation until 4 October 2021.

DfT said in the Explanatory Memorandum to the Regulations that these measures have been put in place to combat adverse effects to “critical supply chains” due to an acute shortage of heavy goods vehicles (HGV) drivers.

The Committee raises the following issues in its report;

• A risk to road safety – The Committee notes that this is the second relaxation of drivers’ hours rules this year and does not wish to see such relaxations become the norm. Normal restrictions on drivers’ hours are based on accident statistics so for safety reasons further and continuous relaxations of these rules should be avoided.

• Evidence of poor compliance with the rules – Sampling by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) between July and August revealed that 29% of HGV drivers were exceeding their permitted hours: in 1425 roadside checks, 411 offences were identified. DfT were unclear whether an application for an extension under the relaxation had been made by the employers of the offending drivers. Without a clear picture of what is happening on the roads it seems unlikely that DfT can effectively legislate to address this situation.

• Reasons for the extension – DfT referred to “critical supply chains” as justification for the initial relaxation of the drivers’ hours rules and their continued extension. However, the legislation makes no clear distinction between food and fuel supplies and other goods. The report invites the House to ask DfT what other strategies it proposes to increase the number of HGV drivers trained and operating in Britain to provide a permanent solution.

Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts, Chair of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee said;

“The rules surrounding the number of hours an HGV driver can work before taking breaks are a crucial element of road safety and must complement any critical supply chain requirements needed to keep our supermarkets, hospitals and other essential services well stocked.

“We have already expressed concerns that drivers might feel under pressure to use this extension in hours. We have also noted media reports of significant lorry crashes and for safety reasons we would not wish to see a relaxation of these rules become the norm.

“DfT must explore other strategies to increase the number of HGV drivers trained and operating across the country so as to provide a permanent and effective solution to any issues relating to driver shortages and we have asked the House to raise this with the Department.”

Notes to Editors

1. The extension of HGV drivers’ hours is set out in SI 2021/921 The Drivers’ Hours and Tachographs (Temporary Exceptions) (No. 2) Regulations 2021 (legislation.gov.uk)
2. The Committee’s observations on this are in its Twelfth Report (parliament.uk)
3. The SLSC raised similar concerns over the earlier instrument, the Drivers’ Hours and Tachographs (Temporary Exceptions) Regulations 2021 (SI 2021/58) in its 44^th Report of the 2019-21 Session House of Lords - Forty Fourth Report - Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee (parliament.uk)
4. The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee scrutinises policy aspects of all secondary legislation laid before the House of Lords and subject to proceedings in Parliament and reports on them weekly.