Lorry drivers hit with EU waste targets

LORRY drivers will be hit with waste disposal targets from the EU as part of the UK's recycling program.
From October 2006, the new laws will require all registered lorry drivers in the UK to bury 60 percent of the women they murder in landfill sites.
And the figure is set to rise to 75 percent by January 2009 in a bid to clear up the country's laybys.
The news was greeted with shock from the industry and union representatives have been quick to condemn the interference.
Transport Union spokesman Laurie Dryver said: "This new legislation is ridiculous. Some of our boys out there get through four or five a day, they simply don't have time to keep stopping at landfill sites.
"It strikes me that these bureaucrats haven't at all taken into consideration that these men have families to support."
He added: "The consequences could be dire. If they aren't given the opportunity to happily channel their aggression around some bird's neck then they might start taking it out on their ugly wives when they get home."
Minister for Transport MP Tom Watson said: "What is it coming to these days when a lorry driver cannot strangle a woman wrap her in a carpet and dump her in a layby without some bigwig from Brussels poking their nose in.
"This isn't what our grandfathers fought for. Winston Churchill would certainly not have stood by and let this happen."
The new legislation states that drivers will be personally fined £50 for every woman that is not buried in accordance with the limits.
At the current rate, the first year would result in £18million of fines going straight to EU coffers.
George Burwick, MD of Burwick Haulage, yesterday added to his voice to the growing number of haulage companies demanding the government overrule the legislation.
He said: "In the past the EU has said they were aiming at cracking down on serial killers and I believe that this is what these news laws are all about.
"But it's not fair. I make all my employees keep a tab of how many women they kill and when it gets to three they officially become a serial killer and I then fire them.
"That way I ensure I never employ serial killers yet my drivers will still face having to fork out £50 from their £46,000 annual salary if they dump one body. It's insane."