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Time to take care of our own and stop worrying about 'those others'
Page 18
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I'M NOT SURPRISED that a majority of people voted in favour of supporting the Freight Transport Association and the Road Haulage Association (RHA) (Operators pledge their support for fuel lobby', CM 3 September).
There can't be many (especially among the owner-drivers/smaller hauliers) who could still afford direct action — most of us are just concentrating on surviving. I am pleased, however, that a good percentage voted for getting the general public behind our efforts.
The general public would benefit from any drop in fuel costs won by hauliers (how many know you can buy a new four-wheel-drive vehicle with what it costs to fuel a working truck for three to four months?).
I can't see that wasting time and fuel in blockades is going to do any good, and I don't accept the view that we should just give up.
For those of us who try to earn a living with our own vehicle, giving up is just not an option we have far too much invested in it.
I'm afraid I remember the days when all the cars used petrol, and diesel was cheaper than petrol, but supply and demand is now also in the pricing equation.
I'm sure if they really put their minds to it, the government could work out a way of taxing hauliers less on their lifeblood, without reducing the fuel costs for cars — after all, the trucks do at least perform a public service (if you've got it, a truck transported it).
I realise this would not do much towards winning public hearts, but the percentage of tax given back to hauliers would not have to be great to make a significant difference in running costs. Also, visiting foreign trucks don't pay a 'road fund' to use our roads — or their own — so we are, in fact, subsidising these trucks to come and take some of our work, with their tanks full of cheaper fuel.
Elsewhere in CM, the RI-IA is urging hauliers to increase their rates, but for those
so-called 'dedicated hauliers' among us, this is not an option. Foreign hauliers can undercut our rates anyway, and this would just kill our own industry faster. There have already been too many haulage firms passed into foreign hands or moved abroad, and we now seem to be governed by Brussels (among others).
Isn't it time we looked after our own country and our own workers for a change?
Isn't it time we looked after our own destiny and stopped worrying about 'those others'? C Clark Via email