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RHA: Govt should relax laws to clear foot-and-mouth backlog

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The government has been criticised for not temporarily relaxing driver hour rules in order to clear the backlog of livestock in the wake of the recent foot-and-mouth crisis.

Phil Flanders, the director of the Road Haulage Association (RHA) in Scotland, had asked the Department for Transport (DfT) to relax the rules so that haulage firms could clear the build-up of animals, which occurred when bans on livestock transportation were introduced.

However, the DfT has decided that such a relaxation is not justified. A spokesman told RoadTransport.com: "Drivers' hours rules help protect HGV drivers and other road users from the real dangers associated with driver fatigue. They are a key part of road safety legislation and decisions to relax them are not taken lightly."

Flanders said: "We are facing a serious animal welfare problem and the long-term economic consequences could be disastrous for all involved. We urgently call for the DfT to grant this relaxation for Scotland."

The government said that it would continue to monitor the situation.

In the wake of the foot-and-mouth outbreak on a farm in Surrey, tight restrictions of the transportation and export of livestock and animal products were put in place, which severely affected many haulage companies in the UK.

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