Period of Availability (POA)
The Working Time Directive (WTD) for the Road Transport
Sector was introduced on the 4th April 2005. It includes the sub
section referring to ‘Period of Availability’ or POA.
Although there is no written clarification, POA is commonly
assumed to be used by the driver at their discretion.
The guidelines clearly state when POA ‘can’ be used by the
driver with specific stipulations & requirements over its use regarding a period
of waiting should be known in advance.
There have been no amendments to the Working Time Directive
pertaining to Sub Section, Period of Availability. POA has not been enforced. It
is not a statutory requirement. Its current status and meaning stays exactly the
same as from its initial introduction on the 4th July 2005.
Transport companies are knowingly misinterpreting the actual
meaning of the sub section (POA) wording: 'can’ be used by the driver”
to a fraudulent mandatory requirement of POA enforced through local company
policy.
To change ‘or mislead’ the meaning and purpose of a
directive or statute from its original status without following the correct
legislative procedure is an act of fraud by misrepresentation.
Misrepresentation Act 1967
“Where a person has entered
into a contract after a misrepresentation has been made to him, and—
(a) the misrepresentation has
become a term of the contract; or
(b)
the contract has been performed”
Fraud Act 2006
2 Fraud by false representation
(1) A person is in breach of this section if he—
(a) dishonestly makes a false representation, and
(b) intends, by making the representation—
2
(i) to make a gain for himself or another, or
(ii) to cause loss to another or to expose another to
a risk of loss.
(2) A representation is false if—
(a) it is untrue or misleading, and
(b) the person making it knows that it is, or might
be, untrue or misleading.
