II EDITOR'S COMMENT
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• 'We're not looking to apportion liability ... we're just looking for a procedure." That plaintive cry from the Road Haulage Association describes its fight to win compensation for British hauliers caught up in the recent fracas in Spain. As for Loughborough-based haulier Mike Pickering, there's been too much talk already. He wants operators throughout the UK to stop work for a day in December to force the Government to take a more positive approach to compensation.
According to Pickering the Government does "not take us seriously as a united body". What else is new? Road transport has never been high up the list of government priorities, regardless of party politics. Considering that over 80% of goods are carried by road it's a scandal that the Government doesn't take more notice of the haulage industry. If any sector of industry has helped bring about the much publicised Conservative economic miracle (and suffered in the wake of the present mismanagement of the economy) it is surely road haulage.
Road hauliers have also helped this Government out of some pretty tight jams in the past — did some one mention the miners' strike?
To get back to specifics, why does it seem to be so difficult for the authorities to act fast on compensation for British hauliers subjected to attacks on the Continent? Nobody is accusing the British Government of causing the assaults on TIR trucks, but as the Department of Transport carries much more diplomatic clout than an individual road haulier it really ought to be creating more of a fuss to see that hauliers caught up in the Spanish fiasco are quickly compensated. The DTp has a ready made role model in Agriculture Minister John Selwyn Gummer who was vocal about compensation following the attacks on British trucks in France. If the Ministry of Agriculture can do it why not the Dip? Civil servants have all the time in the world to let things take their natural course. Hauliers facing hefty bills for lost revenue and damage to vehicles can't afford to be so sanguine. They need a quick response with an established procedure for claiming and receiving compensation. When an overdraft is due bank managers have little time for dithering. For operators trying to stay alive in today's business environment every penny and every second counts. Why are we waiting?