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Campaign News Press Releases ETF Briefing Notes and Statements Follow the Debate at European Level Campaign Material

Why NO! to the newly proposed Working Time Rules?

The European Institutions are revising the European law on working time for professional drivers. If adopted, in its current form, the revised law will increase the working time for self-employed drivers from 48 to 86 hours per week! This proposal is now on the table of the European Parliament, who rejected it several times before. Say NO to an 86 hours working week for professional drivers, as:

It undermines safety on roads for us all

• You will share the roads with overworked lorry drivers, on the road for more than 13 hours a day!
• …which will increase your exposure to fatal road accidents
• …which will ultimately impact on the quality of your life

Scientific evidence shows that fatigue is caused by repetitive long working days and increases the risk of road accidents. Fatigue is a significant factor in approximately 20% of commercial road transport crashes. Surveys show that over 50% of long haul drivers have fallen asleep at the wheel.

It undermines the very dignity of the drivers’ profession

• It forces self-employed drivers to work 28 hours more per week than their employed colleagues
• It thus gives an incentive to companies to convert the employed drivers into false self-employed with no labour rights and social protection
• It encourages exploitation of cheap labour in road transport

For further information, please contact the ETF Political Secretary of Road Transport – Cristina Tilling (c.tilling@etf-europe.org, phone: +32 (0)2 285 46 66)