LRD guides and handbook August 2020

Health and Safety Law 2020

Chapter 10

Drivers’ hours and COVID-19

[ch 10: page 199]

The long and unsocial hours worked by many drivers might make them more at risk from COVID-19, according to the Unite general union. A government analysis in May 2020 revealed significantly increased death rates in certain occupational groups including taxi drivers, chauffeurs and bus and coach drivers. Unite assistant general secretary Diana Holland said: “A full public inquiry into these deaths must investigate not only if these workers were failed by a lack of PPE, but also if they were significantly more susceptible to the disease due to the cumulative effects that working long and unsocial hours had on their health.”

Temporary driving hours relaxation for COVID-19 now lifted

A temporary relaxation of driving hours and working time rules, put in place by the Department of Transport to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, for carriage of some goods by road from 23 March 2020 was lifted from 14 June 2020, restoring normal regulation and enforcement.