Tories affirm policy and warn on future
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CONSERVATIVES will be standing by their transport policy document The Right Track at the General Election, confirmed Tory transport group vice-chairman Peter Fry' speaking at the Tipper Convention at Harrogate at the weekend.
Mr Fry accused the Foster Committee of basing its conclusions on political doctrines and not the facts presented to it and he said that the first aim of the Committee should have been to give the country an efficient system of transport and distribution.
"The user must come first and we must create a climate which will allow the user to select the mode which suits him or his business," said Mr Fry.
And he warned: "Any move to force freight onto the railways would be disastrous." He added that it would be best for the Government of the day to remove problems rather than create more of them.
Mr Fry warned that there were hidden subsidies for rail freight transport due to the confusion of freight rail track costs being confused with passenger track costs.
But more seriously he warned that the EEC is moving towards harmonisation of transport and equality of investment "that will make the introduction of tachographs and EEC drivers hours regulations look like pinpricks compared with the changes in our transport system that are coming."
He appealed to the industry to "make sure that Brussels does not vitiate the efficiency of our transport industry. "It would be fatal to stand on the sidelines of the EEC. Now we are in we must play a full role — only by being accepted as full members will we get any benefit from it as the French have done, we must influence the club from within," said Mr Fry.
Tory policy was clear, he said, there would be no subsidy on any freight movement and the Conservatives would be looking for the partial denationalisation of the National Freight Corporation so that it became a mixed State and private enterprise as is BP.
Conservative Transport Policy was committed to private enterprise.
Mr Fry said that the Government through the actions of Prices Secretary Roy Hattersley had effectively prevented the settlement of the drivers' strike this year.
He promised that a Conservative Government would reconsider the whole question of the Foster Report and he accused the committee of too narrowly interpreting its terms of reference — there were too many suggestions that put the industry in the hands of the planners: "you must watch that you are not harassed," he said.
But he added that there should be proper enforcement of the present regulations before more are added.
On tachos Mr Fry accused the RHA of taking an ambivalent attitude by first opposing them and then approving voluntary fitting and he said that the instrument should have been part of the deal that ended the drivers' strike.
"The pay rise wouldn't have seemed so bad and we could have cleared another hurdle — but the decision of the European Court was the only way the Government could sell tachos to the unions," he said.
Increased weights would not exactly be greeted by the electorate with open arms confessed Mr Fry and there was an "awful" amount of public education needed before they would be accepted and if they were not accepted British makers and operators would lose out and they should not let it happen.
He urged that the road haulage industry should explain things to the public and gain their acceptance. Anti lorry elements were growing in force and the only way was answer them, "You must say that larger lorries could mean less damage," he said, "and they should be more acceptable.
"I advise and implore you to put the case over as hard as you can," he said. "The Government must accept that there will be greater use of lorries but we must have quieter lorries and less emmissions as well as the road network improved."
See also pp27 and 28.