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Wafter Wiliam Smith, a director of haulier Perfect & Sons, says government policy and spiralling costs will cause the collapse of the haulage industry...
• if you want to sound off about a road transport issue write to features editor Patric Cunnane or fax your views (up to 600 words) to Mcky Clarke on 020 8652 6912.
dd I have just read an article in the trade press
concerning a government survey on foreign road hauliers carrying out cabotage in the UK. As someone who has spent more than 30 years in road haulage I feel it incumbent upon me to respond.
Firstly, we need to understand that every coin has two sides—a fact our government seems unwilling to acknowledge.
I do not dispute that the vehicles stopped in order to carry out this survey were carrying loads to or from Europe, but let us consider the nature of this business. Fora considerable time now, many trailers have been sent unaccompanied across from the Continent. it is this work that has changed. There are more European hauliers coming over with these trailers because it is now more economical for them to carry out the deliveries themselves than to arrange delivery through a UK haulier.
The reasons are self-evident. We are now paying 68p/lit for diesel against 44p/lit paid in France or 38p/lit in Belgium. The average European vehicle holds 1200, litres of fuel in two tanks carried on either side of a two-axle articulated unit.
For some time two axles have been considered less roadfriendly than the three-axle articulated vehicles run by many UK hauliers—until the recent Budget that is, when our government apparently decided to favour the European style. With this amount of fuel on board European hauliers can cover approximately 1,800 miles. To put this in perspective, that amount of fuel could take them from Dover to Manchester and back three times. it doesn't take a mathematician to work out that they save almost 1300 compared with a domestic UK haulier.
These hauliers are not carrying out cabotage as such. However, it does mean the trucks from Europe are covering many more miles on our roads than our government is prepared to acknowledge. They are paying no revenue towards the upkeep of our roads and are not bound by the same restrictions we are. Certainly they have no consideration at all for the environment.
Until this government decides to help the UK haulier, this scenario will gradually worsen and cabotage will commence in a big way, simply because there will not be enough domestic hauliers left to fill demand.
Our industry has been teetering on the edge of a huge chasm, and it appears that Mr Blair's government cannot wait to give us that one final push that will send the British haulage business plummeting into oblivion.
In 1996, the VED for a 38-tonne two-axle tractive unit with threeaxle trailer was 1.3,100, compared with £2,730 for a three-axle tractor with a two-axle trailer. The saving of £370 a year persuaded us to become more environmentally friendly and adopt the three-axle tractors with two-axle trailers. In 1999, VED for a 38tonne two-axle tractor with three-axle trailer was 13,210, and £2,820 for a three-axle tractor with two-axle trailer, an even better saving of £390 a year.
But after this year's Budget, VED for a 38-tonne two-axle tractor with three-axle trailer is £2,710, and for a three-axle tractor with two-axle trailer it is 22,820. How are we meant to interpret this apparent U-turn? Is the government admitting it made mistakes in previous years9 What's more, once we have bought triaxle trailers and uprated our fleet to run at 41tonnes, at considerable expense, what surprises will the government have in store for us then?
Might I suggest Mr Blair should have thought longer before adopting the party name New Labour? I know that I speak for hauliers all over Britain when I say that a more apt name would be HARD LABOUR!