Feed Driver Hours' Relaxation Ends

decrease font size

increase font size

change type face

bookmark this page

email this page

print this page

Latest Pig Industry News

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Print This Page

Feed Driver Hours' Relaxation Ends

UK - A temporary relaxation of EU driver working hours' rules for those delivering agricultural feed by the Department for Transport (DfT) has come to an end.

The UK DfT had made the limited emergency decision to relax its enforcement of EU drivers' hours laws for distributing animal feed to farms effective until 11 January.

Such concessions were deemed "vital" by the Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC) chief executive David Caffall, in light of the worsening road conditions owing to the snowy weather.

He said: "The continued icy weather and ungritted roads in many rural areas have led to our members making less than half their normal deliveries in affected areas.

"With many drivers coming to the end of their weekly hours allowance we were facing a serious risk of livestock farmers running out of feed."

However, concerns could be set to re-emerge this week, with the relaxation coming to an end at midnight on 11 January.

This is despite the Met Office issuing a number of early warnings for severe or extreme weather for the early part of this week, predicting heavy snow for most UK regions.

ThePigSite News Desk