| Author | Message | ||
     Steve Middleton |
Hi Wendy & Kerry, I agree with you 100% but my understanding of the hours rules are, you can do 6 days work (driving or other) then you must have 24hrs off, this should'nt affect the average carriage driver (national event arrive on wed & club event arrive on a friday) the drivers i was refering to is the people with 26t + boxes that travel abroard & round the uk with other peoples horses (making them commercial drivers), most VOSA TE's will take this aproach. reagards Steve Middleton | ||
| Wendy Stromberg |
Steve, The most unreasonable thing is the Commercial HGV Drivers, without a rest period, can get straight in their cars, vans, motorcycles and drive all weekend. They can participate in extreme sports and even fly helicopters are it is not accounted for. They then get straight in their 40 tonners and do another weeks work. Something is not quite reasonable here. | ||
| Kerry Bowness |
Ironically Steve, getting back home after the events is not the problem, it's getting to them. The article affetcing the equine industry is regulation 561/2006, which states that the "weekly rest period" after "other work" is 24hrs. The "weekly rest period" is defined as "a period during which the driver can dispose of their time freely". This includes hobbies, such as carriage driving. It does not mean that the driver has to sit on the sofa drinking tea all day, or indeed sleep for that period of time! The problem lies with the vast majority of full-time workers, who finish work on Friday night and then want to drive to a show on Saturday morning (or in the case of carriage drivers, earlier in the week). Nobody is suggesting equestrian HGV drivers shouldn't have breaks during their journeys or, indeed, a decent rest before driving any great distance. | ||
| Steve Middleton |
Hi all, Sorry to put a dampner on this topic but why do you think that because your using a heavy goods vehicle for a recreational reason that you should be exempt from drivers hours regulations that govern all HGV & PCV drivers in the EC, Surely the recent case of the lorry driver that tragically took the lives of 4 people on the M6 with one of the factors being he had exceeded his drivers hours is a major reason to adhear to these rules ? These hours rules are in place for commercial drivers that drive from A to B with no effort involved in between, carriage driving is a fairly physical sport & to drive in excess of regulated hours after a 4 day event in my opinion will significantly affect your ability to operate the HGV safely, putting at risk the lives of other road users, your animals & yourselves. regards Steve Middleton preparing for a barriage of abuse | ||
| David Taylor |
Re the H & H petition I have not been able to access it at all, page will not load - times out. | ||
| Patti Atkinson |
I dont understand that clause at all. Half the competitors in our sport and lots in showing, eventing and show jumping will travel more than 150miles. So I wont be signing the petition but will be writing to my MP | ||
| Louise McCutcheon |
All credit to the H&H petition. It is good but there are glitches when trying to sign it from Internet Explorer. Worryingly, there is a clause restricting horsebox drivers to single distances of 150 miles - we live in Scotland and only have one National event within 150 miles radius, so competing Nationally would be impossible under this rule. Why has this restriction been added? Many equestrian competitors travel the length and breadth of the country to compete. What is the problem with that? | ||
| Kerry Bowness |
THE BHS, BEF and H&H have also got a petition running regarding this. Kerry http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/397/282300.html | ||
| David Taylor |
Driving the lorry is very different from my weekday work - a change is as good as a rest - is it reasonable to suggest that any commercial LGV driver that has an allotment and spends the weekend working on it could be required to take days off during the week! The onus is on the targeted individual to prove that they were not working. If you get my drift - is there mileage in putting thought into this - finding more suitable examples and inferring that there may be unforeseen consequences if these nonsensical big brother VOSA rules are interpreted in this manner? | ||
| Tony Gregory |
BDS Chairman John Parker is urging all motorised horse box owners to lobby their MP to complain at VOSA's interpretation of the regulations covering recreational horsebox drivers in the UK. He urges us to visit the BDS website and download a sample letter to send off to our MP. Please visit the BDS website and follow his lead to get the regulations modified before it is too late. |