Safety and working conditions in European bus and coach transport

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The following information has been produced by the ITF for use by national affiliates as part of our ongoing campaign to improve safety in the passenger motor transport industry. Unions are encouraged to distribute this information to their members and the general public.

Introduction
Everybody is naturally horrified when they read the papers or watch the television and learn of another bus or coach crash, accompanied by loss of lives and serious injuries. Accidents of this type appear to be on the increase and an increasing number of people are using long-distance buses for tours or to reach their holiday destinations. The prices are low compared with rail or air travel, but do you ever consider how these low prices are available?

One of the reasons why low prices are available is because the regulations which are supposed to ensure that drivers take regular rest periods and do not drive excessive hours are often disregarded. On top of that, the enforcement authorities are generally unwilling to apply the regulations in more than token fashion. Even if the authorities had the will to do so, individual enforcement officers find the regulations so complicated that they interpret them in a perfunctory way.

But the safety of passengers' journeys depends crucially on the driver in charge of their vehicle being sufficiently well-rested to perform a day's work without being overcome by fatigue. Pressure from the employer, from cut-throat competition between bus operators, as well as low wages and poor working conditions, often mean that drivers contravene the regulations, which are supposedly there for the protection of passengers, drivers and other road users alike, in order to keep their jobs and feed their families.

Abuses and dangerous practices
Every time the regulations are ignored or circumvented, the lives of both drivers and passengers are put at risk. The following are a sample of the abusive, dangerous and illegal practices which have been reported to the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) by European trade unions:

A driver works on school and factory runs during the day, for which he is not required to use a tachograph, and then drives all night using a tachograph;
A driver exceeds the daily length of duty allowed by the regulation and is obliged to change tachograph disc, but destroys the second disc upon arrival at the destination;
A driver has to maintain and clean his vehicle before departure and has thus already carried out several hours work before commencing driving;
On long trips the name of a passenger (whether or not he holds a driving licence) is entered as a second driver;
A third driver is signed up for an international shuttle service but this third driver has never been on the vehicle and the other two drivers operate, falsifying his name in the records;
An additional driver joins an international shuttle service at a designated point on the route. However, he has already driven for several hours to reach this point;
A driver takes a party on a guided city tour. He drives to the city using the tachograph disc correctly but then removes it and conducts a guided and lengthy tour before reinserting the disc and doing the return journey;
Drivers are often forced to travel at speeds exceeding the legally permissible limits to maintain their schedules.
A person works full-time Monday to Friday in one job and then works as a bus driver on Saturday and Sunday; he has no weekly rest day.

The regulations
There are two sets of regulations in Europe which are supposed to ensure that excessive hours are not driven and that drivers take breaks and rest periods. In practice the two sets are virtually identical:

In the European Union, it is Regulation 3820/85, entitled "Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3820/85 of 20 December 1985 on the harmonisation of certain social legislation relating to road transport".

In countries outside the European Union it is the "European Agreement on the Work of Crews of Vehicles engaged in International Road Transport", known as the AETR for short.

Some countries have their own national legislation for purely domestic operations.

Driving time: a driver may not drive for more than 4 hours without taking one break of 45 minutes or several breaks of at least 15 minutes taken over the 4 hours. The daily driving limit is 9 hours but twice a week this may be extended to 10 hours. A maximum of 90 driving hours in two consecutive weeks must be observed.

Daily rest
There are two possibilities:

a) If the bus has only one driver, then in each period of 24 hours he must either take a break of 11 consecutive hours (reducible to 9 consecutive hours 3 times per week on condition that an equivalent period of rest be granted as compensation before the end of the following week) or 12 hours divisible into 3 periods, one of which is at least 8 hours.

b) If the bus is manned by 2 drivers, during each period of 30 hours they must take not less than 8 consecutive hours each.

All time counting as rest can only be taken when the bus is stationary.

Weekly rest: If weekly rest is taken after 6 daily driving periods then it should consist of 45 consecutive hours, reducible to 36 consecutive hours at home base or 24 consecutive hours when away from home (to be compensated for by an equivalent rest taken consecutively before the end of the third week following the week in question). If taken after 12 daily driving periods the weekly rest period should consist of 90 consecutive hours, reducible to 48 consecutive hours when away from home.

Tachographs: In order to record the driving time and rest periods of bus and coach drivers, vehicles have to be fitted with a recording device called a tachograph, which records the hours on a paper disc.

The need for improved regulations
These Regulations have serious deficiencies, which the trade unions have been attempting to rectify for many years. Firstly, they are just too complicated (the details given above are only a summary). Secondly, they do not properly limit the length of time on duty - only the driving time; many drivers spend considerable time on other tasks as well. Thirdly, in the case of a double-manned bus, it should not be legal for a person to be driving after he/she has already been on duty for nearly 22 hours. Fourthly, it should not be legal for somebody to drive consecutively for 12 days before taking a rest day.

It is in everyone's interests - drivers, passengers and other road users - that revised regulations are introduced which ensure a reasonable limit to the length of daily duty time and which guarantee proper daily and weekly rest times. The safety and good health of drivers and passengers must be the prime concern of everybody.

The ITF and its affiliated road transport trade unions have long been aware that driver fatigue is a cause of bus and coach accidents. A survey of drivers carried out by the German Transport and Public Service Workers' Union showed that one in three drivers had only narrowly missed being involved in an accident and that one in eight drivers admitted to having fallen asleep behind the wheel. In 1992 over a 3-week period 108 buses were stopped by German police on the road to Paris. One quarter of the drivers had not observed the regulations on driving and rest periods and one driver had been driving for 85 hours without taking even one break of 8 consecutive hours.

Advice to potential passengers

While travelling by bus and coach is generally a safe way to travel, as a passenger you can help to ensure that accidents are reduced even further by taking a number of straightforward steps:

When booking your tour or travel, ask your travel company which bus company will provide your transport. If the travel company does not know, insist that it provides this information.

Ask the travel company whether the bus company has any convictions for contravening the regulations on drivers' hours (EC Regulation 3820/85 or the AETR). If the company has convictions, insist on travelling with another company which has a clean sheet.

Take this leaflet with you when you set off. Ask your driver/drivers if they are familiar with the international regulations on their hours. If, during the journey, you believe the hours regulations are being contravened, inform the driver. If serious irregularities are taking place, inform a police officer and the travel company. Demand that the company take corrective measures immediately. It is your safety at stake.

Remember that in accepting your money, the travel company has contracted to carry you in accordance with the regulations. If the company does not respect this obligation, it has misled you and may be placing your life at risk.

Our aim
The road transport trade unions and their international organisation, the ITF, want to make travel by bus and coach as safe as humanly possible. Many passengers are not familiar with the regulations on drivers' hours and their safety purpose; it is therefore our aim to provide you with this information. We hope that you will join us in insisting on the improvements in standards which we are seeking.

This information was published by the ITF as annex 1 to circular no 30/Rt.5/1996 on 29 January 1996.

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