The department for Transport (DfT) has advised that drivers of vehicles on door-to-door collections of waste from commercial premises are excluded from drivers' hours requirements. This brings into line the exemption for drivers of vehicles on door-to-door household waste collections. "This is a victory for common sense," said James Hookham, policy director at the Freight Transport Association. "Any other interpretation would have resulted in more costs, wasted fuel, increased carbon dioxide emissions and reduced efficiency, all for no significant gain in safety," he added.rnThe interpretation is dependent on the waste collected from commercial premises, or public street bins, being similar or the same as that collected from households. Likewise journeys should not be more than 50km from where the vehicle is normally based.rnIt had been feared that the exemption from drivers' hours regulations for domestic waste collections would be lost in the event that the same vehicles also collected similar waste from the same streets, but from commercial premises as well.
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