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Leading operators have hit out at current drivers’ hours rules, branding them overcomplicated and meaningless.

The enforcement agency recently published non-compliance data naming more than 1,400 UK companies including Eddie Stobart and Saint Gobain Construction.

The data showed offences detected at the roadside and did not include those it found during visits to operator sites or on desk-based assessments.

“Systemic and sustained non-compliance and/or incompetence/ignorance must be frowned upon,” said ArrowXL chief executive Charlie Shiels. “But it just gets more complex every year. You’ve got drivers’ hours, then you have the European working time directive layered on top. You don’t just have to look at drivers on a daily, weekly and fortnightly basis - now it’s a 13-week reference period. Then a driver does something wrong and gets a personal fine of £1,000 fine for not inserting a tacho card.

“Hopefully with Brexit, there’ll be less European legislation. We don’t want an illegal industry but the bureaucracy level is beyond ridiculous.

"There are people out there who are looking to break the law and if it's nine hours a day they’re looking to do 10 - that’s wrong. If a driver doesn’t do what he’s meant to we have to discipline him. Because if the DVSA comes in and find an offence we can tell them we’ve dealt with it and here are our notes."

The DVSA was forced to investigate the reliability of its non-compliance data last month after a "baffled" operator told motortransport.co.uk it should never have been included.

But Dawsongroup MD John Fletcher claimed the enforcement statistics were “meaningless without understanding the severity of the offence”.

“How many of the infringements on the offenders list were minor, such as drivers running over time by minutes in a struggle to find safe overnight parking?” he said.

“Big company transgressions make great headlines. However, the 10 biggest operators named on the offenders list, with collectively well in excess of 5,000 vehicles, attracted 12 offences between them; yet 187 other companies listed had more than 12 each.

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“The DVSA needs to distinguish between minor infringements and those that blatantly flout the law. How can an operator rack up hundreds of offences and still have unfettered access to our road network? Enforcement should be about removing the rogue operators, not producing huge volumes of data which in effect hides them.”

Rob Willshire, director of RG Racing / Alfano UK agreed: “Drivers are being punished for being one minute over," he said. "Some tachographs record a 15-minute break as 14 minutes, or 45 mintues as 44. The DVSA treat this as an offence. The drivers’ hours regulations, linked in to the transport management system, are overcomplicated when you factor in working breaks and rest. You can end up paying back hours up to six months. No wonder companies and drivers fall foul of the law and people are leaving.”

RHA chairperson and Cullimore Group MD, Moreton Cullimore said some hauliers were obviously breaking the rules but urged the DVSA to “just get on and manage them”.

“What’s the point in naming and shaming?” he said. “Are people prepared to break the law with such regularity going to be worried about being on a document naming offenders?

“What is being talked about a lot in this region is hauliers who are found guilty in Public Inquiries and then are allowed to continue to trade, for a period of time, due to size. Whereas smaller operators are told they have to close with immediate effect. It’s the inconsistency of the ‘policing’ of all this stuff that annoys people.”

Added Mearchers chairman Bob Terris: “Unfortunately we all know that there are a large number of operators who flout the regulations and the genuine operators would welcome stronger enforcement.

“With regard to the list of offenders, I do not think the DVSA are very good with many things and this is probably one that could be added to the list.”

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