After relaxing rules government has no record of foreign lorries
on UK roads. No record of who comes, who goes and how long they
work.
Unite, which represents tens of thousands of lorry drivers, has
discovered that the government is failing to monitor how many
foreign lorries are entering and leaving the UK under a
controversial scheme introduced last year.
In a panic move aimed at tackling the HGV driver crisis, the
government changed the cabotage rules at the end of October. This
allowed companies from anywhere in the world to send lorries with
foreign drivers to the UK to work unlimited hours, making
unlimited deliveries, in any 14 day period. For that time the
drivers can sleep in their cabs but after the two weeks is up
they are supposed to leave the UK.
But Unite has now established, through a freedom of information
(FOI) request (see notes to editors), that there is no
monitoring by the Department for Transport (DfT) of how many
foreign companies and lorries have taken advantage of the policy,
which countries they have come from and how many lorries
have remained in the UK beyond the 14 day period. The DfT told
Unite that it does not monitor the results of its relaxed rules.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “This is sheer
incompetence by the government, which is playing Russian roulette
with British road users. It introduced this knee-jerk reaction to
the lorry driver crisis last year, now they tell us they don’t
know how many foreign lorry drivers have come, how many hours
they work when they are here, and if they go home after the
14-day working period. It’s literally an accident waiting to
happen, based on the illegal super-exploitation of these
drivers.
“Unite is dedicated to protecting the jobs, pay and conditions of
its members. If it receives any evidence that a failure to abide
by the UK’s employment laws, road safety rules or driving
regulations is impacting on the jobs and conditions of our lorry
deriver members, then we will take action to stop that.”
With the government unable to record how many lorries are
entering and leaving the UK under its cabotage changes, the only
way that these vehicles can be monitored and checked if they are
complying with UK rules on vehicle standards and driving
regulations is through on-the-spot inspections.
However Unite revealed last
month through a previous FOI request that such checks are
vanishingly rare and that the average UK lorry can travel the
equivalent of three and half times round the world before it was
likely to be inspected. The number of on-the-spot
inspections declined by 39 per cent since 2016/17.
Unite national officer for road haulage Adrian Jones
said: “Not only is the government clueless about how many
foreign lorries are currently on UK roads, but the only
on-the-spot inspections to ensure these vehicles are roadworthy
and driving regulations are being observed are as rare as hens'
teeth.
“Rather than allowing foreign lorries unlimited access to the UK
to tackle driver shortages, the government should be tackling the
root causes of the driver crisis, low pay, long hours and the
lack of decent parking and welfare facilities for drivers.”
In a separate development, in its FOI response the DfT further
admitted that the only information it has on cabotage rates are
still compiled by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical
office (despite the UK having left the EU nearly two years ago),
and the most up to date figures were only recorded to 2019.
Ends
Notes to Editors
Unite made a FOI request to the Department for Transport (DfT)
asking how many companies and lorries had taken advantage of the
cabotage policy, which countries they came from and how many
lorries had remained in the UK beyond the 14 day period.
The DfT replied: “The specific information you requested is
not held. There is no mechanism or register available from which
cabotage data could be derived as it will be commercial data held
by operators based outside the UK.”
During the coronavirus crisis
Unite is working to keep workers and the public safe, to defend
jobs and to protect incomes.
