Attacks on foreign drivers hide wider safety problem

The T&G transport union has condemned a recent wave of xenophobia aimed at foreign truck drivers, arguing that the real issues in the industry are long hours, fatigue and worker safety.

Ron Webb, the union's national secretary for transport, said that media "exposés" of eastern European drivers - such as a television documentary in which a Polish driver admitted taking dangerous risks to made deliveries on time - masked a more widespread problem.

Lorry drivers routinely work nearly 30% more hours than the UK average, despite the stipulation of an average 48-hour week in the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005. Figures from the Office of National Statistics show that lorry drivers work an average of 49 hours a week, compared with 38 hours for other workers - and 10% work more than 63 hours on average.

"Drivers on our roads should be driving safe hours, whatever their nationality," Webb said. "The reality is it is not just the continental drivers who are breaching safe limits, it is all drivers. That requires attention."

And the regulations governing drivers' hours are fatally flawed, according to veteran T&G campaigner Fred Beach. Because the 48-hour maximum excludes "periods of availability", he told Workplace Report, drivers can continue to work when they should be resting, without this showing up on tachograph readings.

Beach also pointed out that foreign drivers make up only about one in eight of all drivers on UK roads, and so form only a small part of the industry's safety problem. "Blaming foreign drivers is the easy way out," he added.