Owner of large haulage company in the Midlands slams 'unnecessary' speed limit reductions

The chairperson of the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) has called for a derogation of the soon to be implemented speed limit reductions.

Ger Hyland, Chairperson of the IRHA and owner of Hyland Transport hauliers in Rosenallis in Loais, has hit out against the 'crazy' Road Traffic Act 2024.

Irish truck drivers may only drive a certain amount of time each day, which will be affected due to the change in speed limits and travel times. The chairperson also believes that the new implementation of multiple points for multiple driving offences will lead to difficulties in retaining drivers.

"Anything that improves road safety, we embrace it," Mr Hyland told the Leinster Express / Laois Live.

"It isn't this drop in speed on local roads that we have a problem with, it's what will come behind it. That's where the big problems lie," he said.

A major problem that Mr Hyland expects to face is the struggle to retain drivers ahead of the new legislation, which will introduce multiple penalty points for multiple driving offences.

"If a driver gets six points on his licence, he's halfway there to losing it. There needs to be licence category for car drivers, and a separate one for truck licences, so if you lose your car licence you don't lose your truck licence and source of income," he said.

"With the reduction on local roads, I don't feel it will make any difference," Mr Hyland said.

"You never see a Garda speed van on an L road. To be fair to Gardaí, they are doing the best they can with very limited resources," he said.

"With legislation, we can only work a certain amount of hours a day. Anything that slows down our vehicles, has an impact on the amount of work we are going to do," he said.

"When they change these limits on the towns and villages, they are going to become a revenue generating machine. it'll be like shooting fish in a barrel. That's when it will have a huge knock on effect," the chairperson explained. 

"Our roads are working on all roads, but the driver that's collecting the milk from the farm yard, he's nearly always on an L road or in country villages and towns. He is going to be very exposed of getting three penalty points if he goes two or three km over the speed limit," he said.

"The biggest issue is going to be when they change the limits in the towns and villages. There are some local roads out there where you can achieve 70kmph to 80kmph, but the majority of local roads are bad roads with blind bends and trees overhanging on the roads.

"These are bigger issues than speed. The biggest issue is the vehicles you are meeting on the roads, not the speeds," Mr Hyland said.

"This roll out wasn't necessary, if we had to enforce what we had. This is going to be a cash generating machine. The chances are, that for the first month, enforcement will be fairly prevalent, and then focus will eventually be elsewhere. 

"I would hope that common sense will prevail too, that someone 2kmph or 3kmph over the speed limit won't be dealt 3 penalty points," he said.

Mr Hyland believes that enforcement should focus on areas where road safety is particularly detrimental, such as school zones.

"It's typical of transport companies to be rural based," he said.

"In our village in Rosenallis, there isn't even shop anymore. As I am coming into work at 5am or 6am, if you are doing two or three kilometres over the speed limit, it's different to doing it at a school time in a school zone.  there needs to be consideration," he said.

Mr Hyland believes that these changes will lead to frustration among motorists, creating more incidents of recklessness on roads.

"there's no doubt about it that there is going to be frustration," he said.

"If you are dropping down to 30kmph and there's someone in front of you doing 25km, you're basically driving in second gear. None of our cars are designed to go that slow," he said.

Mr Hyland has said that he is appealing for a derogation of the implementation of the next two phases of the Road Traffic Act 2024.

"I would call on a derogation for at least the year, on the implementation of the next two phases of the speed limits, until we see if this one is having the desired effect," he said.

"If this rollout is a success, and helps road safety and cuts the amount of dents on the road, then we have to embrace it. But we should hold off first and see how this goes," Mr Hyland finished.