Driver fears lease car collection work may spread virus further

A vehicle lease firm is “driving a coach and horses” through the lockdown regulations by forcing drivers to continue collecting cars from customers’ homes, an insider has claimed.

A driver for BCA Logistics told The Scotsman that the continuedworkingbyits2,000 workers could be spreading Covid-19 across Britain.

His job involves travelling by public transport and in minibuses shared with up to eight colleagues to pick up leaseexpired vehicles from people’s houses.

The company has told its drivers they are essential workers because it is a logistics provider.

BCA Logistics sent them a copy of a letter from the UK Department for Transport to freight and haulage groups which said it was “essential that the work of the logistics sector should continue to the greatest extent possible”.

However, one Scotlandbased driver for the company said: “I feel this letter was intended for logistics organisations from the essential services sector, not the motor industry.

“By no stretch of the imagination is this an essential service and we are in fact possibly helping to spread this virus across the whole country.

“I cover the whole country in the course of a week - Reading to Ullapool has been done, and everything in between.

“This is a company that is being irresponsible and driving a coach and horses through the rules of lockdown to protect a non-essential business with no conscience for the consequences for the drivers’ or public’s health, or stopping Covid-19 spreading further.”

However, a BCA spokesperson said: “We continue to follow government advice which states that logistic companies should keep working to keep the country moving and the economy going.

“This position has been clarified further by guidance from the British Vehicle Rental & Leasing Association to support the continued collection and distribution of vehicles.

“BCA requests that its suppliers and self-employed contractors running their own businesses should take all the precautions they feel are necessary to meet government guidelines at this time.

“No drivers are being forced to work during the coronavirus outbreak, as BCA Logistics can only make an offer of work to self-employed contractors, who can then choose to either accept or decline.

“Similarly, it cannot make self-employed contractors take on any work they do not want to undertake.”