Working Time and Road Transport	

	Mac Young
	Working Time Officer
	Health and Safety Executive
	Edinburgh
Session covers
-	Who does what in respect to Working Time Regulations
-	Horizontal Amending Directive
-	Mobile workers
-	Adequate Rest
-	Expected impact on industry
-	Who does what following amendments
-	How HSE approach Road Traffic Fatalities in relation to WTR
Working Time Regulations 1998 (as amended)
WTR Current Enforcement Overview

-	HSE/ LA		Employment Tribunal
-	Limits			Rest entitlement
-	Records			Annual Leave
-	Monotonous Work
-	Health Assessments		
Transport
Horizontal Amending Directive (HAD)

-	From 1st August 2003 Non-mobile workers within the transport sector e.g. clerical workers, warehouse staff

-	Existing WTR provisions apply in full
Transport	
-	HAD
	Definition of Mobile Worker:	
“Shall mean any worker employed as a member of travelling or flying personnel by an undertaking which operates transport services for passengers or goods by road, air or inland waterways”
Transport
-	From 1st August 2003

-	Mobile Workers Entitled To:
-	Annual Leave
-	Health Assessments
-	Adequate Rest
Mobile Workers
-	Mobile workers not subject to the Road Transport Directive (RTD) — including all drivers not covered tachograph rules: e.g. people carriers, couriers, taxis, white vans — will be entitled to an average 48-hour working week, four weeks paid annual leave, health assessments if working nights and adequate rest. 
Exceptions

- BUT ……… the HAD does not extend the Working Time Regulations on breaks and rest periods to mobile workers in this sector ………

- Instead ………

Adequate Rest?

	“…workers … have regular rest breaks sufficiently long and continuous to ensure that fatigue or other irregular working patterns do not cause workers to injure themselves, fellow workers or others, and they do not damage their health, either in the short term or the longer term”
Enforcement from 1st August 2003
-	HSE/ LA/ VOSA	Employment Tribunal
-	WorkingTime		- Daily/ weekly rest
-	Night Work		- Annual Leave
-	Records			- Adequate Rest
-	Monotonous Work	   (mobile workers)	
-	Health Assessments
The Vehicle Operator Services Agency

-	Vehicle Inspectorate Agency

-	EEC Directives 3820/85 and 3821/85 (Tachograph rules)

Impact on Industry

-	HAD from 1st August 2003 WTR rights extend to 770,000 workers

-	From March 2005 Road Transport Directive affect 300,000+ workers
Fatality	
-	RTA A9 Perth to Inverness
-	Two fatalities following a collision between two vehicles, one person driving in the course of his employment
-	Formal determination returned: no specific cause
-	Sheriff said in conclusion “In this case I have been unable to find on the evidence that either sleep or tiredness was a causative factor ….. It seems … that this will normally be the case in a FAI into the death of a driver at work where there is no surviving passenger  to speak to the state of alertness of the driver immediately before the incident”
Fatality

-	RTA West Lothian October 2000
-	Investigated by Police
-	PF advised no offence under RIDDOR or WTR
-	Directors charged with “ they did permit the said (employee) to work and drive for excessive periods of time and failed to cause him to take appropriate rest periods”
-	Fined £2500
Government Task Force Report circa 2000/ 2001

-	“..there should be a more rigorous application of Health & Safety at Work law to on the Road Work activities including occupational driving”
-	“ The various Health and Safety and Road Safety enforcing authorities, led by HSE, should develop ways of working to investigate at-work road traffic incidents and take appropriate enforcement action: and to adopt a coordinated approach to preventative activity 
HSE Policy
-	Where there is more specific legislation enforced by others HSE will not seek to enforce
-	Where investigations by others reveal management failings regarding road transport HSE may (and has) become involved 

How it works in practice
-	RTA on A9 Dec 2001
-	Investigated by Highland Constabulary & HSE
-	Evidence submitted to Procurator Fiscal
-	No prosecution taken
-	FAI held January 2003
-	Fatigue considered but evidence pointed to alternative cause: possibly driver momentarily distracted
Time for change?
-	Although there are estimates it is difficult for HSE as well as other enforcing authorities to gauge number of road deaths to peripatetic workers
-	Possible reason ……… no requirement to report RTA’s as fatal or injury to HSE  as would normally fall within jurisdiction of Police under Road Traffic Act.

QUESTIONS?