§ Mr. Rostasked the Secretary of State for Transport what efforts have been made to secure a derogation from EEC regulations No. 543/69 to prevent the imposition of requirements to keep records of local deliveries from vehicles over 3.5 metric tonnes plated weight where the continuing driving period does not exceed four hours and is within a radius of 50 kilometres from the operating depot.
§ Mr. William RodgersI am at present consulting the Commission on the derogations permissible under Article 14a of Regulation (EEC) No. 543/69. I expect to take advantage of the provision which permits the exemption from record-keeping of all internal goods transport operations within a radius of 50 km from the vehicle base. At present such an 709W exemption is permitted only until 1st July 1979 when installation of a tachograph is due to become compulsory for this type of traffic.
I am also seeking permanent exemption from record-keeping for specialised vehicles used for door-to-door selling. I remind the hon. Member of my statement of 1st February 1978 in which I said that until final decisions had been made about derogations I would not want anyone to change operating practices permissible under the 1968 Transport Act in respect of the vehicles or purposes for which derogation is possible.