Foreign trucks in UK
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top the million mark r-zr
• by Guy Sheppard The number of foreign trucks entering the UK passed the million mark for the first time last year; underlining a continuing decline in the UK's share of the cross-Channel freight market.
According to the Department of Transport, the number of UK trucks crossing to the Continent fell by 2% to 552,000 in the year to September, while the number of foreign trucks coming to Britain rose by 14%.
The Freight Transport Association says UK operators' share of the accompanied crossChannel market has fallen from more than 50% to less than 30% over the past four years.
This is reflected in the experience of K&S,I Harvey of Bolton. Managing director Ken Harvey reports: "Two years ago we were doing 25 to 30 trips a week to Europe; now we're down to Five." Harvey says French hauliers are quoting 1300 to take a load from north-west England to northern France: "We would charge somewhere around £625 for the same trip—there's absolutely no way you can compete." But he adds that domestic haulage has replaced all his lost international work.
FM economist Simon Chapman blames the strength of sterling for the growing imbalance in the share of haulage between British and Continental operators. "Between 1996 and 2000, Lot' every one-tonne increase in UK export volumes to mainland Europe impart volumes have risen by 1.6 tonnes," he says. "These are freight movements that operators based in mainland Europe are far better placed to take on."
Chapman points out that UK international hauliers have suffered a 300/0 rise in their costs since 1996 compared with their foreign competitors. The reduction in Vehicle Excise Duty rates announced in November will narrow this difference by only 3%.
The DOT figures, published in Roads Goods Vehicles Travelling to Mainland Europe: Quarter 3 2000, show the number of German trucks entering Britain rose by 40%, Italian trucks by 35% and East European trucks by 24%.