Farmers, hauliers request ‘urgent 30-day exemption’ from driving hour limits during grain harvest

Farmers and hauliers have asked the Department of Transport to grant an “urgent 30-day exemption” from restrictions on driving times, in a bid to get the State’s grain harvest collected – particularly for use in the malting industry.

Both the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) and the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) have written to the Department of Transport pointing out July was the wettest July on record, leading to delays with the grain harvest, and a particular problem in getting premium grain dry enough to be used in the malting business.

Ger Hyland, incoming president of the IRHA, said hauliers were restricted from working longer than 12 hours in any one day, but while waiting for farmers to fill trailers with grain, who in turn were waiting for “a three-hour, dry-weather window”, much of the drivers’ time was spent not driving. Restrictions also apply to weekend working, he said.

“The upshot is that drivers who might start at 8am, are standing around and in many cases cannot get the grain to the drying sheds in time for it to qualify as a premium product for the malting industry”, Mr Hyland told The Irish Times.

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“We are only asking for 30 days and limiting that to grain hauliers. We have just a month to do this to save the grain harvest, particularly for the malting industry”, he said.

Tim Cullinan, president of the IFA said “farmers are working within a very narrow weather window to harvest grain, often at high moisture contents”.

He warned “a substantial risk to production currently exists in the malting barley sector where the quality of grain is rapidly declining, with a significant quantity of this crop now failing to meet the required specifications. Two of the big quality parameters impacting this crop include grain moisture content and grain germinative capacity; the latter required to be above a strict 98 per cent threshold.”

Mr Cullinan said the IFA understands that a decision has already been taken “not to grant an exemption to hauliers involved in this specific area for this short period of time”. He called for an urgent review of the “disappointing outcome”.

A spokesman for the Department of Transport said it had initially refused the derogation following consultation with the Road Safety Authority and the Department of Agriculture.

The spokesman said there were a number of factors to be considered in deciding on a derogation from the drivers’ hours rules. “The derogation must address an urgent issue and it must also be in response to exceptional circumstances. Equally, a derogation should not in any way jeopardise driver or road safety” he said.

He said having consulted the Road Safety Authority and Department of Agriculture the request had been initially been refused. But, he said following the receipt of additional information from the farmers and hauliers “the department is currently engaging with relevant stakeholders to assess this request and determine whether it represents an urgent and exceptional situation requiring a derogation”.