Question: Who should an operator contact if they believe a temporary relaxation of the drivers' hours would apply?

Answer passage (source: UK):
page_title: Guidance Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance on drivers’ hours relaxations
section_headers: Health and safety legislation
section_content: As well as the drivers’ hours and working time rules, transport operators, as
employers, are required, so far as is reasonably practicable, to ensure the
health and safety of their employees while at work and others who may be put
at risk by their work activities. In addition, they have a legal duty as an
employer to manage risks from fatigue.
That is why when the department does relax the drivers’ hours and working time
rules we remind operators, in our notification of the relaxation, that as
employers, they remain responsible for the health and safety of their drivers
and other road users and that they must ensure that driver safety is not
compromised by expecting them to drive whilst tired.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have issued
advice on managing the risks of fatigue and this includes good practice advice
on shift lengths. HSE guidance on managing shift work advises that employers
should avoid shifts that are longer than 8 hours where work is demanding,
safety critical or monotonous and that they should limit shifts to a maximum
of 12 hours (including overtime). It also advises that they should encourage
and promote the benefit of frequent and regular breaks to reduce the risk of
fatigue.

Drivers’ hours: rules, guidance and list of temporary relaxations

*[HSE]: Health and Safety Executive

Reviewer feedback on this answer:
This is a very good answer but lacks the actual response to the question about who they should contact. It seems to have every other bit of relevant information besides that one
This provides enough information. Also provides link to additional resources.

Reviewer ratings:
Could be Improved
Excellent

Answer passage (source: UK):
page_title: Guidance Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance on drivers’ hours relaxations
section_headers: Emergency relaxations
section_content: Both the GB and EU drivers’ hours rules automatically cease to apply in
emergency situations where immediate preventative action is needed to avoid,
amongst other things, danger to the life or health of people. The definition
of an emergency is contained in domestic legislation (The Drivers’ Hours
(Goods Vehicles) (Exemptions) Regulations
1986 and the Drivers’
Hours (Passenger Vehicles) (Exemptions) Regulations
1970).
The department’s advice about emergency situations is if your journey is
necessary to enable someone to:
1) provide goods or services to protect public health, and/or
2) meet their or others’ basic needs for day to day living, and/or
3) provide medical treatment
and there is a risk of danger to the life or health of people if your journey
is not carried out; then you should make use of the emergency exemption.
Operators do not need to ask the department for a temporary ‘urgent’ exemption
for these type of journeys. The emergency exemptions cease to apply once the
situation is under control and there is no longer a need for immediate
preventative action.
The department would not normally expect drivers in emergencies to:

drive for more than 11 hours in one day
have less than 9 hours of daily rest
work for more than 7 days before the start of the regular or reduced weekly rest (if operating under the EU rules), or
have less than 24 hours weekly rest

In addition, drivers operating under the EU drivers’ hours rules should ensure
they take a 45 minute break after 4.5 hours driving.
The relevant provisions of the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations
2005 will not
apply, to the extent that they conflict with the requirements of responding to
the emergency. Drivers will, however, remain subject to all other requirements
of the Working Time Regulations in an emergency event.
The practical implementation of any changes should be through agreement
between employers, employees and (where available) driver representatives.
Employers must, where possible, agree any extension of working time with
employees or other workers, before that work starts.
The drivers in question must note on the back of their tachograph charts or
printouts the reasons why they are exceeding the normally permitted limits.
This is usual practice in emergencies and is, of course, essential for
enforcement purposes.
Operators should maintain records of when standard drivers’ hours have been
deviated from, along with a justification of why this was needed. The
responsibilities of operators, transport managers and the wider supply chain
may be examined after the current events. It is important that on subsequent
inspections and checks it can be clear that a relaxation was used
appropriately, was well implemented and in a way to reduce fatigue (for
example in relation to shift patterns).
[GB]: Great Britain
  [EU]: European Union

Reviewer feedback on this answer:
This is a very thorough response that goes into a good amount of detail on the subject being asked about. It provides hour information and links to applicable regulations which makes it a better answer
This provides and explains elaborately. very adequate.

Reviewer ratings:
Acceptable
Excellent

Answer passage (source: UK):
page_title: Guidance Coronavirus (COVID-19): guidance on drivers’ hours relaxations
section_headers: Drivers’ hours relaxations
section_content: If a journey doesn’t fall under the emergency provisions the drivers’ hours
rules must be complied with. If the situation is still urgent and an operator
believes a temporary relaxation of the drivers’ hours rules would be
applicable, they should contact in the first instance an organisation
representative of their part of the broader supply chain. Temporary, urgent
relaxations will only be put in place on a systematic basis and only when
other measures in the supply chain cannot be used.

Reviewer feedback on this answer:
This is a pretty good response that eventually says they should contact an organization representative in this instance. This answers the question
This provides necessary information about temporary relaxation.

Reviewer ratings:
Acceptable
Excellent